Kelly Turkeys owner Paul Kelly has called for the creation of a national marketing push – funded by the poultry sector – to mark the 500th anniversary of the introduction of turkey to the UK next year.
Explorer William Strickland is credited with bringing the turkey from America to Bristol in 1526, starting a process by which turkey began to replace peacock and swan in the royal courts.
With UK turkey production having fallen from a peak of 46 million birds in the 1990s to a figure closer to nine million now, Kelly is calling on the sector to “unite and make a big noise” with a generic marketing push in 2026 – in order to help encourage sales growth outside turkey’s usual festive peak.
“We need a national campaign celebrating and championing British turkey,” he said. “We should focus on the whole bird as the centrepiece and make everyone – producers, butchers, chefs and consumers – aware of it and talking about it.”
Turkey “remains the nation’s favourite at Christmas but the lean nutritious meat has many attributes that can appeal to today’s consumers again through the year”, Kelly added. “We have watched our market to independent butchers be decimated by European imports. We cannot compete on price – but we can compete on welfare and provenance.”
By growing male turkeys and cutting them into value added turkey joints Kelly believed “we can regain a significant part of the market over the next few years”.
“A well-executed marketing campaign to help achieve this should be seen as an investment – not a cost,” he added. “Consumers want to buy British as do independent butchers and retailers. We as farmers need to provide an offer to make this happen.”
Potential marketing plans could include pitching a TV documentary at the anniversary, liaising with celebrity chefs to get turkey featured in weekly menus, encouraging producers to rear celebratory flocks and having farm open days, alongside organising point-of-sale promotions.
Reminiscent of the days when turkeys were walked each year from areas such as Norfolk and Suffolk to Smithfield Market in London, Kelly is also encouraging producers “to walk turkeys through their village to recreate images of the bygone era”.
“We want to make everyone in the industry play a part in celebrating 500 years of turkey in the UK,” he added.
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