Mérida, Yucatán — Consumers have shown a preference for turkey, even though the cost of other meats have been kept down, merchants at the mercado Lucas de Gálvez complain.
Vendors have chosen to eat their rising wholesale costs, holding back on raising retail prices, Diario de Yucatán reports.
Right now at the market, pork, beef and chicken are 75, 100 and 35 pesos, respectively. But customers buy turkey meat at 40 pesos a pound, not just economical but also thought to be “fresher and healthier.”
This makes for a bleak situation for butchers at the city’s large Centro market.
Manuel Can Pacheco, president of the association of poultry sellers, said that the price of chicken remains the same as in the beginning of the year, and nearly on par with turkey.
The interviewee told Diario that the trend is away from chicken in favor of turkey, for being less fatty, or hens, which have better flavor and more meat. Hens are 20 pesos a kilo, the most economical of all the choices.
José Romero, who sells beef, said that his sales are down 50 percent over last year.
July and August will be particularly rough, because sales are historically lowest during vacation months, Romero said.
The butcher said that many of his colleagues, as well as pork sellers, have been forced to close shop.
“Many can not stand the low sales and they leave the market,” he said.
