Affluent British families may be forced to sit down to beef Wellington or a pork roast this Christmas after the avian flu outbreak left high-end butchers struggling to source hand-reared and organic birds.
The disease has especially hit free-range flocks, which were exposed to infection from wild birds until the government last week ordered all poultry to be kept indoors. Many luxury butchers are now rushing to secure birds or divert customers to other meats for Christmas.
The London butcher Ginger Pig told customers on Tuesday it was “looking to a Christmas with alternatives for turkey, duck, goose and 100-day chickens” after its Lincolnshire-based supplier WE Botterill & Son lost its entire flock of 18,000 birds. Ginger Pig, which has eight branches, suggested customers consider beef Wellington or pork instead.
Chris Godfrey of Godfreys butchers in Highbury, London, where a free range bronze turkey costs more than £100, said he could offer only about half the normal numbers of turkeys, geese, ducks and Christmas chickens after four of his five farm suppliers experienced outbreaks.
He has warned turkey buyers that the birds they have ordered will not be slaughtered for another three weeks, and that they may need to be refunded if avian flu strikes the remaining flocks.
“The situation is actually dire,” he said. “We sell very premium quality, free-range animals that all live outside and rummage around. The intensive farms are not hit as badly in the sense that they can have sealed barns.”
Godfrey said orders had been coming in at a “manic” pace but that farmers had called him in tears to report the destruction of flocks. “A lot of these farmers have been hit so badly they won’t ever go back into production again,” he said.
Danny Lidgate of C Lidgate butchers in Holland Park said high-end butchers were engaged in “Russian roulette” as they waited to see which remaining flocks would sicken and be culled before they were due for slaughter.
The British Poultry Council has said the current strain of avian flu seems to strike other birds worse than chickens, adding to the Christmas pressure. It said last week that 40 per cent of all free range turkeys had been discarded.
John Mettrick, chair of the Q Guild, a trade group for high-end butchers, said farmers had been particularly badly affected in the east of England, an area frequented by migratory birds. London butchers sourcing from there had also been affected, he said.
“Some of the butchers have put on their Christmas orders that if something does happen [to the bird], customers need to be aware they may have to take an alternative meat,” he said.
John Wood of Wood’s Farm Fresh Turkeys in Lancashire said he had supplied butchers and farm shops in Liverpool, Manchester and the Lake District before losing all 4,000 of his birds in late October. “All the business you built up for years and years is just gone in one day,” he said. “I’m going to be struggling majorly.”
By contrast, supermarkets have said their supply is relatively secure. Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts this month said: “The good news is that about a third of our turkey volume comes from frozen and we have ordered more turkeys this year than we sold last year. The teams will be working very hard to fill any gaps as far as we can.
“Although turkey remains a key part of our Christmas offer, increasingly customers are looking at other products. There has been a real move into gammon and beef in recent years.”
Additional reporting by Jonathan Eley