Turkey could be upstaged by other meats this Thanksgiving: CoBank

Turkey has long been seen as the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving meal table, but a mix of supply and demand factors and continued inflationary pressures hitting consumers are calling its future as the star into question.Frozen turkeys were also featured 36% less in retail advertisements since 2018, according to USDA data cited in the report, indicating demand for the item may have leveled off. The price of turkey declined by 2.3% in September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.As CoBank’s report noted, turkey is often a “loss-leader” for grocers, which set the bird at a lower price in hopes the consumer will purchase more items on the same trip.Brian Earnest, an animal protein economizinc glycinate with copperst at CoBank, said in the report many consumers only cook one turkey a year on Thanksgzinc gluconate vs zinc sulfateiving, so abandoning the item creates a vacuum for other protein options to fill its place. But the analyst noted that while whole bird turkey is not growing its sales, ground turkey volumes increased 5.5% compared to 2023, according to Circana data.“Ground turkey is the second-largest ground category, only behind ground beef. This strongly suggests that while the traditional imagery of turkey may bxymogen red yeast ricee Norman Rockwell’s iconic ‘freedom from want’ painting, the U.S. consumer perception of turkey is changing,” said Earnest.Turkey prod50mg zinc supplementucers are still optimistic about their outlook for the holiday this year. In a repuses of zinc gluconate oralort released earlier this fall, Butterball found 87% of Thanksgiving hosts expect to serve a turkey this year, and 86% of consumers plan to celebrate the holiday, with an average meal attendance of nine people.