Brighton and Hove butchers pay rising meat cost (From The Argus)
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Brighton and Hove butchers pay rising meat cost
5:30pm Saturday 17th November 2012 in News By Neil Vowles
Butcher Brian Archer
Benevolent butchers are proving they are full of festive spirit by taking a smaller cut of profits from their Christmas turkeys.
Traders in Brighton and Hove are giving a leg up to shoppers this year by absorbing the rising costs of suppliers and not passing them on to customers.
The cost of turkeys from suppliers is increasing as breeders battle to overcome the 30% rise in animal feed prices this year.
Butchers, who started receiving enquiries for Christmas turkeys in June, said they didn’t want to push up prices for struggling families.
Brian Archer, from Archer’s Butchers in Islingword Road said he had taken nearly all his orders for Christmas turkeys with most regulars putting in their orders in the last two to three weeks.
Prices the same
He added: “We have kept our prices the same as last year and absorbed the increase from our suppliers ourselves.
“You can get a Lidl four bird roast for £9.99.
A lot of people don’t understand that we are very different to those supermarkets.”
Paul Williams from Brampton’s in St George’s Road said that prices would remain the same at £11.90 a kilo despite costs from their suppliers increasing by 6%.
He said rising feed prices, which account for more than half of poultry farmer’s costs, were increasing at a weekly rate of £3 a tonne.
He added: “Christmas is the most important meal of the year and if either myself or the farmer get it wrong, we ruin everybody’s day.
“In the current climate, we knowthere is only so much a customer can spend on a turkey.”
A butcher at Canham and Sons in Church Road, Brighton said orders pick up next month when the firm can expect up to 60 orders a day.
The shop, which will sell about 1,000 turkeys this year, has increased its prices at just above inflation.
He said: “Everybody who produces meat is struggling to survive at the moment. They have to put up their prices to make ends meet but are concerned about a backlash from the public.”
Comments(22)
nosolution
says...
7:22pm Sat 17 Nov 12
davyboy
says...
7:50pm Sat 17 Nov 12
HJarrs
says...
8:34pm Sat 17 Nov 12
It is nice to go somewhere where the owner has such pride in the product and generally can tell you where the meat (mostly from Sussex farms) comes from.
Is it more expensive than a supermartket? They don't sell really cheap stuff, but in my experience for comparative quality and cut of meat Archer's are either cheaper than supermarkets or often you can't get the quality.
Also, some butchers may sell unpopular but good cuts at cheap prices - go and ask.
I am happy to support our local traders and farmers.
Jetsamandflotsam
says...
9:53pm Sat 17 Nov 12
True local legends
AngelicDevil
says...
10:29pm Sat 17 Nov 12
Have you never considered using the leftovers instead of binning it?!
You can get days worth of sandwiches, pasta bakes, pies etc from the meat and use the carcass to make delicious stock.
I'll be supporting my local butcher. The meat is superb quality and works out cheaper than the supermarkets.
worthingite
says...
12:28am Sun 18 Nov 12
pithound
says...
1:30am Sun 18 Nov 12
Hove Actually
says...
7:51am Sun 18 Nov 12
HJarrs wrote:Is your name Archer?
Some of you are clearly not very discerning when it comes to your meat. I was fortunate to come across Archer's Butchers some years ago and now go out of my way to buy there as I got fed up with adulterated supermarket meat, which often seemed to be more full of water than anything else. It is nice to go somewhere where the owner has such pride in the product and generally can tell you where the meat (mostly from Sussex farms) comes from. Is it more expensive than a supermartket? They don't sell really cheap stuff, but in my experience for comparative quality and cut of meat Archer's are either cheaper than supermarkets or often you can't get the quality. Also, some butchers may sell unpopular but good cuts at cheap prices - go and ask. I am happy to support our local traders and farmers.
Hove Actually
says...
7:55am Sun 18 Nov 12
Helen Ariel
says...
7:55am Sun 18 Nov 12
Juleyanne
says...
9:11am Sun 18 Nov 12
rubberflipper
says...
10:02am Sun 18 Nov 12
mark by the sea
says...
10:51am Sun 18 Nov 12
Wiggsy
says...
11:02am Sun 18 Nov 12
Hove Actually wrote:Is your name Smithfield?
My son works in London and pops down to Smithfield, the cost is cheaper than a supermarket and the quality is better than a Butchers. Amazing packs of bacon and sausages make it worth while if you can get there
MuammarQaddafi
says...
11:28am Sun 18 Nov 12
Hove Actually
says...
11:40am Sun 18 Nov 12
Wiggsy wrote:Excellent, hoisted on my own pitard..
Hove Actually wrote: My son works in London and pops down to Smithfield, the cost is cheaper than a supermarket and the quality is better than a Butchers. Amazing packs of bacon and sausages make it worth while if you can get thereIs your name Smithfield?
Roundbill
says...
2:24pm Sun 18 Nov 12
martyt
says...
4:09pm Sun 18 Nov 12
davyboy wrote:i paid 3.49 a kilo for my turkey butterfly and there is no waste on it all meat and no bones ,can t see the point of buying a bag of bones with a bit of meat wrapped around it
a turkey is a turkey, regardless of where you get it from, so why pay nearly £12/kilo, when a frozen one is just as good. we are just getting a turkey crown this year, as so much gets wasted off a whole bird. every year you see queues outside canhams in hove, and i really can't see the attraction of it.
martyt
says...
4:16pm Sun 18 Nov 12
Helen Ariel wrote:to be honest if you care that much about what kind of life you dead dinner had you would not be eating it in the first ,we all eat and drink the same toxic foods if you look at it in depth ,the planet has been ruined by the human race every drop of water we drink has been pass as pee at some stage in its journey around the planet ,so please tell me what s really
You get what you pay for. Yes a free range organic turkey will be expensive but will have had a decent life and no rubbish pumped into it. My christmas turkey is never dry and would feed an army. Turkey curry on boxing day yum!
organic ??
menowhere
says...
6:14pm Sun 18 Nov 12
banargustrolls
says...
9:23am Mon 19 Nov 12
Rocker says...
5:50pm Sat 17 Nov 12
Good joke about butchers being generous. Never have been,never will be.