Shoppers have been warned of a “big, big shortage” of a staple Christmas dinner item this year.
Half of the free range turkeys produced for the festive season in the UK have already been killed in the bird flu epidemic, British Poultry Council chief executive Richard Griffiths told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. The current outbreak is the worst the UK has ever faced.
The total UK turkey production for Christmas was around 8.5 to 9 million birds, but around a million had been culled or died from bird flu. Mr Griffiths said: “The usual amount of free range birds grown for Christmas is around 1.2 to 1.3 million. We have seen around 600,000 of those free-range birds being directly affected.”
