Vol. 203 No. 6
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that the practice of English turkey rearers of canvassing for orders from English wholesalers and retailers in September and October for turkeys to be delivered in December is increasing each year, and is resulting in more and more English buyers having no openings left for Irish turkeys when they arrive in Britain in December; and what steps he proposes to take to remedy the matter.
22.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that the practice of Irish turkey exporters of not giving sufficiently early quantitative information to their English salesmen is contrary to the best interests of Irish turkey rearers; and what steps he proposes to take to remedy the matter.
23.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will urge on fowl exporters that, if practicable, all firms in Britain who wholesale Irish turkeys should be given a close estimate in October of the number of Irish turkeys that they are likely to receive during the December shipping period.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 to 23 together.
As much advance information as possible regarding the probable level of Irish turkey supplies is made available to British wholesalers each year both through the contacts which the exporters here maintain with their British agents and from a discussion on the turkey market which officers of my Department usually have, in the late Autumn, with representatives of the British National Federation of Wholesale Poultry Merchants. It is, of course, difficult for an individual turkey exporter to give a reliable advance estimate at an early stage of the quantity he himself will secure on the open market.
The growing practice of forward sales by British turkey producers relates in particular to deliveries of early-season birds in oven-ready form by large commercial raisers but there is also a definite demand in Britain at Christmas for fresh New York dressed turkeys of the kind being exported from this country.
