The price of a fresh turkey has soared amid a supply shortage adding an extra Christmas bill to consumers already struggling from the cost of living crisis.
The cost has increased by as much as 45% because of shortages caused by the bird flu outbreak, which has wiped out 1.6mln of the birds in the UK.
On top of this the choice of fresh turkey is more limited in the major supermarkets, with the number of whole bird and crown options falling by about a third this year.
This time last year consumers had 65 products to choose from but now that figure is 44, according to The Grocer magazine.
Of the 27 like-for-like products available on both dates, all but one had seen a price rise of least 12%. The average price increase was 24.4% across this group, according to the report based on data from supermarket analysts Assosia.
The biggest mover was a 45.3% increase for a Morrisons British large whole turkey to £31.44, followed by a 41.6% jump in the price of a Morrisons medium turkey to £23.45. The price of a 5kg M&S Collection organic free-range bronze turkey with giblets, sold via Ocado, saw the third-biggest rise, by 35.7% to £95.
Frozen turkeys are also more expensive, with an average price increase of 18.1% for the 49 frozen lines available both this year and last.
The biggest move was a 30.8% increase in the price of a Braemoor medium British turkey crown sold in Lidl, which rose from £12.99 to £16.99.
Last month the British Poultry Council (BPC) told a hearing of the environment, food and rural affairs committee that of the total 8.5mln to 9mln turkeys produced each year for the festive period, about 1.6mln had already died of the disease or been culled.
Last week the TUC reported that the cost of the items that make up a traditional Christmas dinner had risen three times faster than wages this year.
In a series of calculations to back its calls for more government action on the cost of living crisis, the trade union body said Christmas staples such as a turkey, pigs in blankets, carrots and roast potatoes had risen in price by an average of 18% in the space of a year, while wages had gone up by only 5.7%.