No Small Turkeys Available in Belize

If you were thinking of getting a small turkey this Christmas, you may want to try a chicken instead. That’s because currently there are none to be had in the country from major distributors Quality Poultry Products and Caribbean Chicken. The status right now is that because the Avian flu severely limited the production of local turkeys, only imported turkeys are being sold. And those imported Butterball turkeys are all over twenty pounds. Not only that, but while turkeys sold last year for just over four dollars a pound, Butterball turkeys are selling now at five dollars and ten cents all the way up to five dollars and fifty cents a pound. Today News Five spoke to Landy Habet from the Belize Poultry Association, who told us that two containers loaded with specially requested small imported turkeys spoiled en route to Belize, and that accounts for the large size currently on the market. According to Habet, as far as he knows, there won’t be any small turkeys coming in before Christmas. We also spoke to Raymond Barkman from Quality Poultry who told us that he is currently having one container of small turkeys unloaded, but it certainly will not be enough to meet the demand. Barkman isn’t expecting any more containers before Christmas, and that’s because scheduling and shipping were messed up by the unexpected stevedore strike last week. So that’s where we are today, nine days before Christmas. If your mind is made up and you have to have turkey on your table, you’ll need to be prepared to spend upwards of a hundred dollars for that very special, very popular bird.