Fury erupted on social media as Morrisons reportedly sells a Christmas turkey for a very unfestive £147 in light of cost of living crisis.
A picture of the Morrisons’ 7kg ‘The Best Organic Bronze Turkey’ serving eight to 12 people went viral on Reddit today, after a tit-for-tat turkey price war broke out among supermarkets despite the general fresh turkey price having increased by 25 per cent.
The price tag of the bird with a use by date of December 26 caused outrage, with one user saying: ‘I’d expect it to be bloody plated in bronze for that’ while another jokingly replied with ‘Bronze is cheaper’.
Another user said: ‘If this was a proper free range, decently fed turkey, and I dont mean free range by the standards but definition free range then I could understand the price.
A picture of the Morrisons’ 7kg The Best Organic Bronze Turkey serving eight to 12 people went viral on Reddit today
The price tag of the bird with a use by date of December 26 caused outrage, with one user saying: ‘I’d expect it to be bloody plated in bronze for that’ while another jokingly replied with ‘Bronze is cheaper’ (file image)
‘But there is no way in hell I’d trust any supermarket to sell a ‘real’ free range turkey.
‘I’d rather pay this price and go to a local farmer.’
Yet another joked: ‘They can go and get stuffed’.
However, some came to Morrisons’ defence and said that £20 per kilo of good-quality meat isn’t unusual.
One said: ‘This is also a huge bird. £20 a kilo for good quality meat isnt all that crazy.
‘If I was paying that much I would prefer to go through a butcher I trust, but that’s just me.
‘We should be more shocked about the £20 turkeys than this.’
Another user argued that the public ‘generally, do not have a realistic view of how much it costs to produce quality meat’.
They added that a Bronze turkey takes around 25 weeks to mature, which include feed costs, land management, animal housing, staffing costs – that have increased this year – and higher welfare standards.
The user said: ‘Finally, the birds need to be processed. For some farms that’s a week of killing and dry-plucking, before hanging the meat for a week or two.
However, some came to Morrisons’ defence and said that £20 per kilo of good-quality meat isn’t unusual (file image)
‘This also introduces storage costs and, thanks to the energy price rise, running an industrial chiller isn’t as cheap as it once was.
‘Fresh turkey prices have risen 45% this year, due to avian flu.
‘This is partly due to scarcity, as so many were culled, but also due to the fact that birds had to be housed indoors and biosecurity measures would have been increased, adding yet further expense to those mentioned initially, above.
‘Earlier this year, it was estimated that a (non-organic) free range turkey costs about £65 to rear.
‘That’s before you add on the farmer’s mark-up, transportation and the supermarket’s mark-up. Prices, for everything, have risen since then.
‘Bottom line: Quality (of life and product) costs money and people do not realise the cost and value of meat.’
A spokesperson for Morrisons said: ‘This turkey is the most premium organic product available in our offering and the price of £20 a kilo is in line with the market price.
‘A similar sized turkey, Morrisons British large whole turkey, is available to buy for £4.99 per kg, costing around £31.44.’
This debate comes after a premium butcher was recently critiqued for selling ‘Britain’s most expensive turkey’, where the birds are apparently fed with herbs to maximise their flavour, for a very unfestive £220.50.
