Decline in Irish turkey industry discussed in European Parliament

Concerns were raised in the European Parliament this week about the dramatic decline in the Irish turkey industry.

Ireland produced 3.8 million birds a year in 2005, but this dropped to less than a million by last year.

This Christmas, Irish people will tuck into about 700,000 turkeys, and one in four of them will be imported.

Irish MEP Liam Aylward said until mandatory country-of-origin labelling of meat takes effect in 2014, consumers should ask their butchers where the bird comes from.

The Fianna Fáil MEP said consumers generally prefer to buy Irish when it comes to the annual Christmas turkey: