As the cost of roast dinner favourite skyrockets, check out the world's ...

As the cost of roast dinner favourite skyrockets, check out the world's ...
As the cost of roast dinner favourite skyrockets, check out the world's ...

The British love affair with roast chicken is a long-standing one — but it is heading for choppy waters. A perfect storm of events, not least the war in Ukraine, which has forced up the cost of poultry food — means the price of chicken is soaring. Some industry sources suggest that prices will increase by as much as 50 per cent, and will soon match those of prime cuts of beef.

Marks & Spencer, for instance, is selling organic chicken fillets at £24.15 a kilo, the same price per kilo as organic rump steak. The increase has also affected chickens at the bottom end of the scale.

Ten chicken wings with two side dishes at the chicken restaurant chain Nando's rose from £14.95 to £15.45 in November, and increased to £16 last month.

Chicken has long been regarded as Britain's favourite source of protein. When KFC recently experienced a shortage, a number of customers dialled 999 to express their concern to the police. The fast food chain, too, has been forced to increase its prices.

The Ukraine conflict is having such a devastating effect because the country is such a large producer of wheat and soya, both key ingredients of chicken feed, which has doubled in price since the invasion began. The Office for National Statistics reports that between March 2020 and March this year, the price of chicken rose by 19 per cent. In the same period beef mince went up by just 3 per cent.

A perfect storm of events, not least the war in Ukraine, which has forced up the cost of poultry food ¿ means the price of chicken is soaring (stock image)

A perfect storm of events, not least the war in Ukraine, which has forced up the cost of poultry food — means the price of chicken is soaring (stock image)

Rising energy and transport costs, labour shortages and even a severe outbreak of avian flu, which caused some of Britain's free-range chickens to go into 'lockdown' on their farms at the beginning of this year, have also added to the costs.

The fear is that Britain may once again start regarding chicken as a luxury food, as it did in the 1950s.

Perhaps not as luxurious, though, as the world's most expensive chickens, which are produced by farmer Pascal Cosnet and his wife Marie-Agnes at their small farm just outside Le Mans in central France.

These birds, which retail in Britain for a staggering £60 each (no fewer than 20 times the price of a basic supermarket chicken) are breathtakingly pampered.

Yet their buyers, who include 13 Michelin-starred chefs here and in France, as well as President Macron, European royalty and Middle Eastern sheiks, believe that every mouthful is worth the expense.

'What makes our poultry special are the herbs and the natural feed we give them,' said Pascal as he cradled one of his chickens like a much-loved member of the family. 'That's our secret. That's why we are the best in Europe, if not the world.' And why, with their homegrown feed, they will not be as affected by the soaring costs of wheat and soya.

Pascal's farm at Coulans-sur-Gee in the Loire Valley is not so much a chicken shed as a luxury estate created for its featherbedded fowl.

Perhaps not as luxurious, though, as the world's most expensive chickens, which are produced by farmer Pascal Cosnet  (pictured)and his wife Marie-Agnes at their small farm just outside Le Mans in central France

Perhaps not as luxurious, though, as the world's most expensive chickens, which are produced by farmer Pascal Cosnet  (pictured)and his wife Marie-Agnes at their small farm just outside Le Mans in central France

He caters to their every whim, ensuring that they are given a natural, herb-based menu that would do justice to many of the high-class restaurants that are his principal customers.

There are no additives and certainly none of the dubious feeds used in factory farming.

Although Pascal has also been troubled by an outbreak of avian flu, his chickens normally enjoy the full run of the farm, happily foraging for worms and herbs and pecking at geraniums, dandelions and mugworts, a member of the absinthe family.

'The most important herb we use is mugwort, a form of absinthe which has a positive effect on the female hormones of chickens,' said Pascal.

'Its Latin name is Artemisia vulgaris and it was named after the Greek goddess Artemis, who had the gift of curing women's illnesses. It's just one of 30 herbs we feed to the chickens, but probably the most important element in their diet.

'We collect herbs en masse in the natural spaces four times a year. Then we make large quantities of 'soup'

read more from dailymail.....

PREV California man, 20, who stabbed his mom to death and escaped halfway house is ... trends now
NEXT Kate Middleton hacking mystery: Data watchdog launches urgent probe into ... trends now