With Thanksgiving this weekend plenty of families are getting their turkeys ready for the big day with the turkey industry hard artwork to get those onto the dinner table.
The industry has had some tough years recently, battling against the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) which has reduced stocks across North America.
Darren Ferrance, chair of the Turkey Farmers of Canada, says that they're looking to get a whole lot of turkeys into people's kitchens this year.
"Last year, Thanksgiving, there was 2.1 million whole turkeys that were purchased, which is 37 per cent of the whole bird market at Thanksgiving and there was 2.6 million kilograms of whole turkeys that were purchased by Canadians at Christmas in 2023, which is 46 per cent of the whole turkey market. So I'm expecting very similar numbers this year."
Since having to deal with HPAI, Ferrance says they've been able to stage a great comeback in terms of turkeys.
"All the numbers have rebounded back. The inventories are actually a little higher because the producers did a really good job of managing their quota and getting it produced that year. But it comes in at a different time with a different type of products. So there's a few more whole birds on the market at the moment."
The Turkey Farmers of Canada have a plan to make turkey more than just a Thanksgiving meal, even as it's the biggest day for the dish.
Ferrance says they've been making great progress on getting the bird onto more tables.
"We're five years into a marketing plan, trying to drive everyday use of turkey, from parts to burgers to sausages to doing some small whole turkeys or Turkey breast on Sundays. The campaign has been going quite well. We've seen an uptrend in a lot of our pieces and hopefully we can keep moving that forward. We're trying to outgrow the CPTPP and the CUSMA deals that give away some of our turkey markets into some import product."