COVID-19 may ‘Kill’ Thanksgiving Turkey Sales
For many, Thanksgiving is a time of celebration and food spent with extended family. In normal circumstances, family members travel from far and wide to reconvene with their loved ones – enjoying a thanksgiving turkey dinner.
However, due to the travel restrictions and fear of transmission that comes hand in hand with the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are anticipating a much smaller, more intimate Thanksgiving season this year.
This is potentially debilitating for a variety of different Thanksgiving-related industries and companies, especially turkey farmers. The United States is home to about 2500 turkey farms. For many of them, the holiday months represent close to half of their annual sales.
With gathering sizes reduced, many farmers fear that the demand for smaller, personal-sized turkeys will surmount their available stock and leave them with a surplus of larger birds.
A typical male turkey weighs about 20 pounds, while the females are around 16. Farmers had committed to the percentage of each that they would grow long before COVID-19 hit. So, now all they can do is hope for the best.
COVID-related cancellations of state fairs and other events, where turkey legs are a popular food item, have already impacted turkey sales greatly. The closure of universities and schools also resulted in a greatly reduced demand for turkey breast meat.
Going forward to the holiday season, there’s no way of knowing just how severely the industry will be impacted. For many turkey farmers, all they can do is watch and wait.
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