As turkey steps into the limelight for the festive season, Michael Barker looks at how Christmas 2025 is shaping up and whether traditional meats are under threat from rival proteins
With all the doom and gloom around inflation and pressure on household wallets, Christmas remains a remarkably resilient occasion. If only for 24 hours, families are largely keen to put aside their everyday stresses and enjoy good food and drink as they celebrate with their loved ones.
For the poultry industry – and particularly meats such as turkey and duck that get less time in the limelight during the rest of the year – the festive season is absolutely essential, even making up the majority of annual sales for some specialist suppliers.
Mark Gorton, managing director of Traditional Norfolk Poultry (TNP), says that turkey sales continue to be buoyant, with consumers still wanting the very best for the special day. While there is a growing trend for added-value turkey products, whole birds and crowns still make up the bulk of the company’s orders. “I think it will be a good Christmas despite all the negativity coming out of the government,” he insists. “We’ve seen in the past that when things are gloomy people push the boat out for Christmas, as it is one of those occasions that no one can take away.”
Gorton observes that while free-range always remains popular, there is also a notable demand for organic this year. TNP grows a lot of heritage breeds, such as its renowned Norfolk black turkeys and silver slates, and the company is selling its whole birds alongside a wide range of added-value products such as stuffed turkey crowns and oven-ready turkey breast joints with stuffings, butters, herbs, glazes and bacon wrappings.
Turkey farmer Paul Kelly agrees that sales of the classic Christmas mainstay have held their own over the past few years, with very little change in the marketplace. He identifies a trend towards smaller turkeys and convenience joints that serve four to six people in a nod to the growing number of smaller and single-parent families.
The influence of inflation
According to Asda’s latest Income Tracker, many UK households remain under financial pressure, with rising living costs outpacing wage growth across much of the country. It’s a particular strain on lower and middle-income families, who have seen a decline in discretionary spending.
Inflation continues to be the stubborn obstacle that refuses to go away, and while Christmas is widely regarded as a more insulated special event where many households are willing to loosen the purse strings, producers and retailers are mindful of offering something for all budgets. “We always do our very best to keep our prices competitive and some of the unit price points can be eased by the trend to buy slightly smaller birds – which we have seen – but we shouldn’t forget that bigger whole turkeys offer amazing value for money as they will last for so long over the Christmas period,” Gorton notes.
It’s undoubtedly going to be more expensive on the shelf this year, with the Christmas poultry sector as affected as any other when it comes to pricing dynamics. Producers point to wage inflation and National Insurance increases as major costs that have to be passed onto consumers, while they also note that many retailers are fed up of losing money on turkey sales at Christmas and are now charging a normal trading margin. For independent butchers, the price of imported turkey breast meat has shot up by about 30% this year, with a subsequent adverse effect on the cost to the public.
If there’s a plus side to that, Kelly says that the big increase in imported turkey has opened the door for British production to reclaim the market share it has lost to eastern Europe. “The challenge is a lot of the infrastructure and farms needed to fill this gap in the market is no longer there,” he says. “But for those farmers and producers that can supply more, there is a big opportunity. We will be producing significantly more turkeys next year to supply the high-welfare British turkey the consumer wants.”
At the production end, avian influenza remains the biggest challenge namechecked by producers Poultry Business spoke to for this article, and Gorton adds his name to calls for a vaccination programme as the disease continues to hit harder year on year. Kelly notes that AI has taken a lot of Christmas turkeys off the market, which has led to tight supply and some niche production already taken off sale. “Everyone will get a turkey, but the choice may be more limited than last year,” he adds.
Promoting poultry
Retailers, as ever, have been ramping up their marketing throughout November and into December (see box). Waitrose – which has gone all out with a short movie featuring Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson – is bigging up the launch of a No.1 Turkey Bauble that it describes as reimagining a classic festive favourite. “Encased in the iconic bauble shape, this centrepiece features tender, free-range turkey breast wrapped in our No.1 dry-cured Beechwood smoked bacon,” explains Paul Gamble, the supermarket’s senior brand development chef. “The true surprise lies within – a hidden, jewelled stuffing centre, accompanied with a vibrant cranberry and orange glaze – the perfect finishing touch to drizzle over.”
That perfectly highlights the efforts that both suppliers and retailers will put in to excite consumers even more about the festive season. The industry is also getting support from the NFU, whose #BuyMyTurkeyDay is back for the ninth year to celebrate British turkey meat and producers ahead of Christmas. The event, which was due to take place on 5 December, is social-media focused and aims to explain to consumers the benefits of buying a whole bird as well as encourage people to ask their butcher if they are selling British turkeys, look out for the Red Tractor logo in supermarkets, and use the NFU’s Turkey Finder to buy directly from the farm gate.
The NFU updated its #BuyMyTurkey Day toolkit for 2025, and encouraged producers to play their part by getting involved on social media and adding their details to the Turkey Finder.
Such campaigns are helpful at a time when consumers are making more effort than ever to reconsider their diets, but poultry remains in a strong position thanks to its health credentials and affordability, as well as its mass appeal to children and adults alike. Gorton says that while there is always plenty of choice for consumers at Christmas, the company is selling record numbers of turkeys and is seeing no signs of demand slowing down.
Kelly adds that there is no indication of shoppers moving into alternative proteins for Christmas, and while he accepts that consumers do experiment, the price of beef this year is unlikely to tempt many people to switch. He notes that goose is a very niche market and is struggling to keep volumes up.
Next year is the 500th anniversary of turkey arriving in the UK, and that’s presents a great opportunity for the industry to highlight the many benefits of the meat. Kelly says that KellyBronze will be promoting “the year of the turkey” and highlighting it as the perfect time to have a traditional whole bird. The company is developing a recipe that will use leftovers in an easy and delicious way to encourage purchase, among other things.
It should make for a strong season, and further proof that the most iconic meal of the year is in no danger of losing its lustre.
Retailers race for the Christmas poultry pound
Retailers have been quick to unveil a raft of new formats and flavours to tempt consumers to indulge over the festive season.
The centrepiece of Aldi’s new launches is what it describes as the “most fail-safe answer to Christmas dinner yet” in the form of its Specially Selected The Ultimate Christmas Dinner in a Box. Retailing at £39.99, the meal kit features a British bacon-topped-and-stuffed slow-cooked turkey joint, accompanied by numerous sides and a turkey gravy.
That’s just one of a number of items in the discounter’s festive lineup. Its other notable offerings include a Specially Selected British Roast in the Bag Roly Poly Stuffed Turkey Crown (1.5-2.3kg) and a Specially Selected The Ultimate British Free-Range Whole Turkey (4-5.99kg), which has been reared slowly and traditionally dry-hung for at least 10 days for extra flavour and succulence, according to the supermarket. Aldi also claims to have the cheapest frozen turkey on the market, with its small whole British turkey (2.8-4kg) starting from just £15.99.
Waitrose, meanwhile, has launched a staggering 267 new ‘trend-driven’ food products for Christmas this year – up almost 50% on 2024 – including what it describes as a “showstopping” No.1 Free Range Turkey Bauble with festive stuffing. The retailer has very much taken a something-for-everyone approach to its product innovation, with launches across beef, gammon, fish, meat-free and sides.
M&S reported seeing earlier than usual demand from shoppers when it comes to Christmas planning, with its Christmas Food to Order service opening in late September. The retailer said it received more orders in the first week than any other year since the service launched, with over 56,000 orders placed on the first day alone – a 7% increase year on year. Early best sellers included the Oakham Turkey Breast Joint.
Asda noted the rise in popularity of festive sandwiches. Its range includes the return of its Boxing Day Sandwich and Christmas Club Sandwich, both of which feature chicken. New for the on-the-go lunch market in 2025 are sides including Festive Chicken, Sage & Cranberry Poppers with Cranberry Sauce.
Morrisons’ line-up of festive sandwiches includes a The Best Christmas Chicken Feast Sub Roll, Christmas Lunch Wrap and Turkey Lunch Sandwich.