MILWAUKEE — Thanksgiving is bringing turkey producers little to celebrate this year, while diners anticipating the most poultry-centric of holidays might be grateful that they won’t see much difference in the cost of their bird.
Meat producers have been struggling this year with higher costs for key ingredients including corn, soybeans and oil, part of why the cost of beef and chicken has risen so much. Turkey producers are facing all the same pressures but don’t have the same economies of scale and have to plan a year in advance for the one day a year they count on most.
About 46 million turkeys will be eaten on Thanksgiving Day, about the same as in previous years, said Sherrie Rosen blatt, spokeswoman for the National Turkey Federation.
“That’s basically most Americans having turkey at the center of their plate,” she said.
Consumers will see good prices this year, Rosenblatt said, because retailers will again heavily advertise turkey at prices where they might not make any money on the deal in hopes that shoppers drawn in by the lower price will buy lots of other products.
It’s prime turkey-eating time in an industry that produced about $13.9 billion worth of product last year. But even the seasonal sales boost won’t ease the industry’s sagging profit margins.
Too much meat on the market, high prices for commodities and fuel, and weaker demand from restaurants have sliced into profits.
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s largest chicken producer, is sagged by debt and using temporary credit lines to stay afloat. Some observers worry that Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, may also have too much debt.
Turkeys are likewise in trouble, but on a smaller scale since people eat more beef, chicken and pork overall. Turkey producers say prices edged up slightly but not enough to recoup the costs of raising the gobblers this year.
About 29 percent of all turkey consumed during the year is eaten during the holidays, industry figures show, though that’s down from 50 percent in 1970 as more people eat turkey year-round, especially in the form of sandwiches and ground turkey.
