Cost of Christmas dinner to leap by 20% as supermarket food prices rise, analysis suggests

The average cost of Christmas dinner will rise by more than 20 per cent this year, according to analysis of major supermarkets’ food prices. She added: “While there are signs that cost pressures and price rises might start to ease in 2023, Christmas cheer will be dampened this year as households cut back on seasonal spending to prioritise the essentials.” Shoppers were also warned this week of a “big, big shortage” of free-range turkeys this Christmas, with 600,000 having either died or been culled as a result of bird flu – roughly half of the number typically grown for the festive period, according to the British Poultry Council. The cost of popular Christmas dinner items has risen sharply, research suggests In total, up to nine million turkeys are typically grown for Christmas, but around a million have so far been lost to the country’s worst-ever avian influenza outbreak, the council’s chief executive Richard Griffiths told MPs. We don’t know how the gaps within retail are going to be filled at this point.” The pork industry has also been hit by a series of cost increases in the past year, according to the British Meat Processors Association’s chief executive, Nick Allen – as the war in Ukraine pushes up the cost of energy and animal feed, and Brexit-related labour shortages see wages increase.