Turkey prices, availability impacted by avian flu

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Ham may be the meat of choice joining the Thanksgiving dinner this year, after reports of avian flu have impacted turkey and even chicken availability, causing prices to increase.

“We’re down by about 20 percent to 30 percent from previous years,” owner of Honey B Ham and Deli Patrick Schultz said.

Schultz said it was more difficult to get their shipment of turkeys this season.

“They put us on a longer wait list, and we couldn’t figure out how many turkeys we were getting until recently,” Schultz said. “They didn’t know how many turkeys were going to be available.”

Schultz said a typical order ahead of Thanksgiving is about 10,00 turkeys, but he said they were only to get about half of that this year.

“We were only limited to so many, and we were just told over a week ago how many we could get, and that was the number they gave us,” Schultz said,

Availability will greatly impact the price the consumer will pay this holiday.

“The price has increased a lot. Obviously, we went from a $60 turkey to a $75 turkey average. The shipping with the fuel cost and the cost of the decrease in turkeys increased the prices,” Schultz said.

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