Turkey prices will be the most expensive on record as the result of a bird flu epidemic that “destroyed almost 8 million turkeys earlier this year,” according to a report in Bloomberg News.
The outbreak of disease also forced turkey farmers to sell their birds earlier than they might normally, meaning that the birds consumers do find in the stores will be smaller than normal. Meat buyer John Taormina told Bloomberg that the heaviest birds shoppers are likely to find this year are between 20 and 22 pounds, or enough to feed roughly 15 people.
Overall, turkey prices have risen roughly 18% to $1.5993 a pound as of Nov. 6, according to the report.