Turkey shortages impacting supply for Thanksgiving

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Thanksgiving is two weeks away, and for local turkey processors, like Scarrow Meats, most of the work comes long before the turkey dinner.

“We sell right at about 1000 birds a year is what we’re selling now,” says Scarrow Meats owner, Don Scarrow.

Many of those birds stay in Idaho, but Scarrow says people come from across the west to buy his products.

“I have several customers that come down every year from Washington, bring 3 or 4 coolers, come down, put an order in, pick up all their meat for the year and take it back,” Scarrow said. “It’s way cool.”

This year, a combination of supply chain interruptions, including Bird Flu outbreaks, have dampened the supply of Turkeys across the country including here in Idaho.

“Placed my order, Eric called me back about 3 weeks later and said, ‘there are no birds available,’ we had to cancel my whole order,” Scarrow said. “This was back in February.”

After calling around, Scarrow was able to get his hands on about 600 birds, still a forty percent decline in available supply.

“First come first serve, if you want them, call and order quick because we’re going to run out,” Scarrow said.

Even with the lower supply, Scarrow says he will work with his customers to do his best to provide them with what he can this Thanksgiving.

“I have a really hard time saying no. I do whatever I can do to figure it out and make it happen,” Scarrow said. “But, if we can’t, we can’t, I have said no. Hopefully, we take care of everybody.”

Copyright 2022 KMVT. All rights reserved.