‘Who can afford to pay £100 for a Christmas turkey?’

A turkey farmer says his family has decided to wind up their business due to soaring costs.

John Wright, from East Yorkshire, said when he crunched the numbers “they just didn’t add up”, blaming high energy and fertiliser costs, as well as reduced family budgets.

“Who can afford a £100, hand-plucked, 5kg turkey this Christmas? I know I can’t,” he said.

Kent-based John Howe, chairman of the Traditional Farm-fresh Turkey Association (TFTA), said farmers who were unable or unwilling to invest in their businesses were “falling by the wayside”, adding membership had fallen from 40 to just 29 in a decade.

Mr Wright, 35, said: “A lot of people are really upset we won’t be selling turkeys this Christmas.

“Over the years, many of our loyal customers became good friends. We were part of their Christmas tradition.

“I didn’t want this to happen, but it was impossible to carry on. Everything was stacked against us.”

Mr Wright’s father, also called John, began rearing turkeys in 1989.

The family would sell about 1,200 turkeys every Christmas.

“My dad started off delivering turkeys to local butcher shops,” said Mr Wright. “We then began selling at farm shops, as well as direct from our farm.

“We would even Fed Ex turkeys, posting them as far as Scotland and London. We gained a good reputation.”

Mr Wright said the war in Ukraine, which produces fertiliser needed to grow food for the birds, had led to price hikes.

“In a short period of time, the price went from £200 to £800 per tonne,” he said.

At the same as fertiliser costs were rising, the farm’s energy bills were going up.

“It became incredibly expensive to keep a chiller unit chugging away for a month in the lead-up to Christmas, which was obviously our busiest time of the year by a long stretch,” Mr Wright said.

“It was costing us up to £6,000 a month to run a chiller. It couldn’t carry on.”

He said many households had struggled with the cost of living in the past few years.

“Speaking to others in the poultry world, it seems people are not prepared to spend £100 on a turkey when you can spent £17 for a frozen crown at the local supermarket,” he said.

The ever-present threat of avian flu was also a factor in the family’s decision to quit, he said.

“People think it’s gone away,” said Mr Wright. “It hasn’t. There was a case recently near us.

“Poultry farmers live in fear of getting the call, knowing a case would mean your entire flock having to be killed.”

Mr Howe, from the TFTA, said: “It’s sad when a business is forced to pack up or they can’t see a future. A few of us are growing but the rest seem to be falling by the wayside.”

He added turkey farmers now “need nerves of steel”, with both the financial means and business acumen to invest in their businesses.

“It’s certainly not an old man’s game,” said Mr Howe. “I’d have stopped had it not been for my children who bring modern skills to the business.”

Meanwhile, Mr Wright – whose family farm now lies empty – said he had decided to earn a living selling gas to pubs and restaurants.

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