Farmgate Hatcheries is to raise prices for its turkey poults by between 3% and 5%. Managing director Paul Kelly said the price rises were to take account of 10% higher feed costs, wage rises for seasonal workers and general inflation.
Writing in his annual newsletter to poult customers, Kelly pointed out there had been a price reduction in 2015 and no increase in 2016. He also said with the sales period consolidating into a shorter season and the need for more breeding stock to supply the peak weeks, special rates would be available for larger orders in May and September.
Kelly also discussed changing trends for Christmas turkey sales in the newsletter. Whole turkey sales at Christmas are now holding their own after a big swing to crowns and breast joints at major retailers over the past few years, said Kelly. “This swing does seem to have slowed or even stopped,” he said commenting on trends in December.
Kelly Turkeys’ own farmgate sales at Danbury in Essex show 72% sold as whole birds and 28% as crowns or joints. “Our retail sales have stayed at these percentages for the past four years – but in the major retailers it has been the opposite. I am not sure why, but my gut feeling is they do not promote the whole bird as the obvious choice, and it gets lost in the plethora of crowns and joints,” Kelly said.
However, he urged traditional turkey producers not to ignore the market for joints and added-value products. “This is a market you must get into in order to satisfy demand – and it is very profitable. Crowns and joints were averaging about £16 per kg at retail last year.”
Whole bird sales to butchers held up well, but he cautioned again about imported turkey ‘butterflies’ that, he says, are very cheap and with inherent big gross margins continue to hinder sales of traditional British turkeys.
For farmers ordering poults for this year he recommended buying 33% as-hatched and 66% sexed hens to give a spread of weights to supply most order books.