Store bosses face importing turkeys from Poland to avoid Christmas shortage ... trends now

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The price of a turkey crown centrepiece for Christmas dinner has risen by up to 26 per cent thanks to higher farming costs and the impact of bird flu.

It emerged this week that about 1.4million turkeys have died or been culled as a result of Britain’s worst outbreak of bird flu.

Farmers also face crippling cost rises caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has pushed up the price of energy and animal feed.

This week, industry leaders suggested as many as half of the country’s free-range Christmas turkeys – 600,000 – have been killed or culled due to bird flu, leading to a ‘big, big shortage’.

Stores are expected to have to import birds from nations such as Poland and, potentially, Brazil. However, the cost of these foreign birds has doubled.