Turkeys at the grocery store; photo Steve MacArthur
You’ve seen it on social media and it’s true, the price of turkey is outrageous this year.
In some parts of Nova Scotia a bird is going for $70.
Janet Music, Research Coordinator for the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, said it was a bad season.
“We know that the Prairies had drought like conditions that made growing grain for turkeys very difficult,” she said. “So that’s less feed for turkeys, so they’re not growing as large.”
Music said farmers couldn’t raise as many turkeys this year either.
Those two things together mean there are fewer, smaller, more expensive birds this Christmastime.
That’s bad news for people hosting big family get-togethers.
“If you have 20 people around your table then you’re going to need a significant sized bird and so, it could be this year, that you’re cooking two turkeys,” she said. “I don’t know if your stove can handle such a thing.”
Music said it’s not all bad news. Thanks to a PEI potato export ban, the price of that staple is down this year, so you might be able to save a little money there to add to your turkey budget.
