CHRISTMAS IN CRISIS
Worried families fill freezers amid fears of shortages (toys could be scarce too)
FAMILIES are racing to fill their freezers with Christmas essentials amid warnings of festive shortages.
Sales of frozen turkeys are surging on the back of warnings there will not be enough fresh birds to meet demand.
Also selling fast are Christmas puddings, chocolate and other products that have a long shelf-life.
Many supermarkets have put mince pies on shelves earlier this year. They will go off if kept at room temperature, but can be frozen.
Ocado sold all of its Christmas delivery slots within hours of them going live, while other supermarkets have put customers on alert that theirs will be snapped up fast. Other threats to the festivities have included warnings of a shortage of Christmas trees, because of disruption to shipping and transport from Scandinavia, as well as toys, with interruptions to shipments from China.
Last year disruption to shipping from the Far East hit the arrival of festive decorations for homes and stores. Most festive food is bought fresh and will not go on sale until the week before Christmas because it will quickly go off.
However, it is possible to buy a frozen turkey, gammon, beef joints, chipolatas and bacon, that can go into the freezer now. Many party food items are sold frozen or are suitable for home freezing.
Boris Johnson insists the nation will be able to enjoy a better Christmas than last year’s in lockdown, however supermarkets and food chiefs have warned of gaps.
The British Poultry Council predicts turkey production will be down by around 20 per cent, largely because processors do not have the staff. This has been confirmed by the owner of Bernard Matthews.
One of Britain’s biggest turkey farmers, Paul Kelly, said: ‘There will not be the amount of British turkeys in retailers because the farmers have made the decision they’re not going to be able to pluck them and process them.’
Aldi says it is already selling 1,500 frozen turkey crowns a day, while its Christmas pudding sales are up 45 per cent on last year. Marks & Spencer said sales of its frozen Christmas food have soared by 500 per cent. This includes more than 25,000 turkeys and a surge in frozen party food sales.
Iceland said its sales of frozen turkeys are up by 409 per cent on a year ago. Its boss, Richard Walker, said the chain was well placed because it was primarily a frozen food supplier.
Richard Harrow of the British Frozen Food Federation said: ‘Frozen food sales grew rapidly during the pandemic and we are now seeing evidence of a growing awareness of frozen food’s quality, convenience and ability to reduce food waste.
‘Many consumers have been permanently converted to buying more frozen products by the long shelf life, value for money and variety of food on offer. This combined with current concerns about food supply mean many people will be opting for frozen this Christmas.’
Polling for Ipsos Mori found 75 per cent of people are worried about festive panic-buying, driver shortages and inflation.
Bridget Williams, Ipsos Mori’s research director, said: ‘Despite Boris Johnson’s plans to “save Christmas’’, the majority of people are currently concerned about the impact of all these crises on Christmas this year.’ Families are
‘We’re not able to pluck them’
also facing a smaller range of toys because of supply issues. Gary Grant, of toy store chain The Entertainer, warned that prices were rising.
He added: ‘We definitely have inflationary pressures coming through that could be as bad as the 1970s. I’ve been selling toys for 40 years and we’ve never had a period of inflationary pressures that we’re now facing.’ Arguing the Prime Minister had no handle on the issues, he told The Times: ‘It just shows a complete misunderstanding of what’s actually going on in the country.
“Invest in your people, train
your people.” Yeah, we’re doing all of that. But we want more people.’
Kiran Shah of toy firm Character Group said deliveries were already out of sync for Christmas. He added: ‘We just don’t have sufficient goods to supply. Freight rates and shipping costs are through the roof.’
He said Character would try to hire temporary staff in November to turn around the toys and get them to retailers fast enough for Christmas. But he warned workers were harder to find and more expensive to hire. Costs would have to be passed on to consumers, he explained. Jonathan Goldstein of Cain International, which owns the restaurant chain Prezzo, said: ‘The Government needs a strategy as to how the economy is going to source the right labour at the right levels to ensure that there is not significant inflation, driven by wage inflation – and the more the Government is in denial about it, the more this problem is going to continue.’