Pastor Brenda Adkins is desperately trying to provide Thanksgiving baskets with turkey and all the trimmings for 400 people by November 21, but is coming up short, despite a nice donation by the Knights of Columbus, because every market she calls is putting the price at $1.89 per pound.
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Russet potatoes: 99 cents per pound (same as last year), $2.42 for a 3-pound bag ($2.20 in 2014).
Portions of the nation will be hit with a shortage of Thanksgiving turkeys, but the Twin Tiers won’t be one of them.
Keep in mind that the skin will look more charred than the golden look you are used to, but the turkey tastes delicious.
So much of the turkey talk this year has been about the bird flu.
You may recall earlier this year that bird flu was making eggs more expensive. Wholesale prices are the lowest for this time of year since 2009, and Rabobank global predicts more Americans will turn to the meat instead of turkey when they celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26. But if you can’t afford or find a fresh, free-range turkey, don’t despair.
“If you look at the big number out there … we’re in good shape”, Kerry Doughty, CEO of Butterball, the largest producer of turkey products in the U.S., told Business Insider “[Turkeys in] cold storage in September of this year, versus September of last year are nearly identical”.
With tighter supplies, buyers are competing for supply.
Officials said this season’s freezer turkey stock was flash frozen beginning back in March. He also sells a few frozen turkeys.
“Because of avian influenza, overall turkey production is down this year”. The bad news: There are only 50 turkeys available.
Thanksgiving isn’t just about the turkey of course – so we’ve had a quick look at the current average prices for other Thanksgiving staples and ingredients and compared them to past year using USDA data.
Other options, at the risk of sounding un-American, include skipping the turkey altogether for something less traditional at Thanksgiving.
Grocery stores often price turkey as a “loss leader”, and many will feature turkeys at special prices for frequent shoppers or if they buy larger birds, Ms. Alexander said.
According to Purdue University, the increase could be as much as 20 cents a pound. It takes up no more room than the turkey itself, and after you apply the salt rub it just, y’know, sits there. The remaining birds fetched $1 to $1.10, about the same as past year, he said. The turkey alone is $90; the whole spread with all the trimmings for up to eight people is $275.
Minnesota was one of a handful of states that saw an epidemic that wiped out millions of turkeys.
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“I absolutely think that consumers are going to see a higher price of turkeys, but they probably won’t see all of it because they commonly don’t”, Prestage said.
