Kelly Turkeys aims for the US Thanksgiving market

UK turkey producer, Kelly Turkeys has purchased a farm in the US state of Virginia to scale up production of KellyBronze turkeys for the US Thanksgiving market, Paul Kelly announced at a 30th birthday celebration for the product.

The KellyBronze has been test marketed in Virginia over the past two years and the 1,000 in production for this November have already been sold. The American market is dominated by cheap frozen turkeys and the challenge for the Kelly family is to create a niche market.

“I know all the industry big players out there, and they think we’re mad,” Kelly told more than 70 guests at a woodland venue surrounded by eight-week-old turkeys. “They say ‘Turkeys are a dollar a pound. Get over it. You’re trying to sell a turkey at ten dollars a pound. It’s not going to happen no matter how good it tastes.”

“I don’t really get that because the sales of fine wine and champagne go through the roof at Thanksgiving in the US and they sell 60 million turkeys there. So we just want a tiny weenie bit of it for those people that want something very special and genuinely better for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s going to be really exciting.”

The 106-acre farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains has pasture and woodland for rearing the turkeys, and a small processing plant will be built on site to dry pluck, hang and prepare the turkeys in the way KellyBronze birds are produced in the UK.

Looking to the future in the UK he said that wild woodland production would be replacing much of the normal free range, with increasing emphasis on eating quality.

“We probably eat more turkey than anyone else in the world, I would imagine, day in and day out. With our breeding programme it’s all about eating quality,” he said. “You’ve got to find families that produce great eating quality and that’s a hell of a challenge. A few years ago we got rid of two pure lines that were continually tough, and didn’t eat very well and that’s sacrilege to a turkey breeder. You just don’t get rid of pure lines!”

He also spoke about the increasing importance of internet sales and their franchising KellyBronze Farmers scheme, alongside expanding local farmgate trade which accounts for 1,900 turkeys at Christmas.