Monday, December 11, 2017

Thanksgiving turkey sales disappoint

Thanksgiving turkey sales were disappointing, prompting the national supply management agency to cut production by three million kilograms for the balance of the fiscal year.

That reduces the target from 63 to 60 million kilograms for the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The national further-processing allocation was set at 83,877,082 kilograms.

After its recent meeting, the directors of Turkey Farmers of Canada decided that “these allocations will be reviewed based on the release of the January 2018 inventories, particularly with respect to the whole bird allocation,” said news media relations officer Alan Sakach.

“For a variety of reasons, the domestic disappearance through Thanksgiving 2017 was not on par with 2016,” he wrote in an e-mail.

“Supply was plentiful-to-long, but retail movement lagged.

“Given that and the persistent need to bring a reduction to frozen inventories, a reduction on whole bird allocation of three million kilograms for 2018/19 was seen as a prudent, if unwelcomed, choice."