Irish consumers will have to pay up to 20 per cent more for their fresh Christmas turkey because of rising feed costs, the avian flu outbreak in Britain and a truckers' dispute in Italy.
These factors have combined to push up the price of fresh birds which are more susceptible to market movements than imported frozen birds.
The main portion of the increase comes from rocketing grain prices because of a world shortage of cereals caused by drought in some of the major producing countries. Grain costs have risen more than €100 per tonne and according to the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland, this factor alone will lead to an increase of about €10 per bird.
The avian flu outbreaks in Britain and other parts of the EU has led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of birds which should have been ready for Christmas.
A shortage of fresh birds in Britain which also supplies to the Irish market, has led to increased French and Italian imports. However, a week-long truckers' strike in Italy which ended only last weekend, has disrupted this trade.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Trevor Sargent, has advised consumers buying organic turkeys to insist on proof that they are paying for the real thing.
In a statement issued this week, he said there were justifiable reasons for paying more for organic turkey because they had to be reared under strict rules in controlled housing densities and must have access to open spaces and special diets.
"Feed additives and veterinary medicines are also rigorously controlled. Because of these rules, genuine organic farmers have to charge more to break even," he said. The Minister added it was easy to check the origin of an organic bird because they had to be certified organic and bear the following codes of the three organic bodies in the State. These are the Demeter Standards Limited (IRL-OIB1-EU), the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association, IOFGA (IRL-OIB2-EU) and Organic Trust Limited (IRL-OIB3-EU).
The number of organically reared birds dropped this year because the number of registered pullets dropped sharply, according to the department. It also said that the price of organic grain had also risen sharply from €260 per tonne to €400 per tonne.