Friday 18 / July / 2025
Muscat: It is the single most important item to grace any Christmas Day dinner table, but the price of turkey in Oman is forcing many to chicken out.
Christmas dinners mainly consist of turkey and stuffing, and with Christmas just five days away, some shoppers in Oman are paying up to OMR12 a kilo for turkey – and that’s without the trimmings.
Others are opting out. With one chaintore revealing that 300kg of turkey will be sold in the days leading up to Christmas, it’s a profitable time for producers keen to gobble up their share of the market.
Marianne, a German resident in Muscat, said, “In our family, the tradition is that my dad makes Christmas dinner and we get our meat from Germany when he goes there before Christmas.
“We usually do not have turkey as part of our tradition but because of the cost involved here, we generally buy what we need for our feast from Germany,” she added.
This year, fresh turkey across the four major grocery stores in the Sultanate has been going for OMR3.5 to OMR12 a kilo, while frozen alternative goes for OMR2.3 to OMR3.2 a kilo.
Raison, an Assistant Marketing Manager at the Lulu Hypermarket, said turkey prices were normal across the GCC. “The prices were normal and the same everywhere, including Dubai and elsewhere. Easter and Christmas are the two days when we sell the most. We have frozen turkey throughout the year, but these two days are more profitable,” said Raison. He explained that they expect 300 kilograms of fresh turkey to be delivered to their main stores in Muscat and Sohar on December 22, and it will be sold for OMR3.5 to OMR4.5 per kilogram. Those celebrating Christmas say it is expensive to celebrate in Oman as they have to cough up anywhere between OMR100 to OMR200 on the day.
Aside from the main turkey dish, dinner also includes a serving of stuffing, ham, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce and other side dishes, all of these making for an expensive feast.
Apart from the dinner, Christmas decorations are a must. These include a Christmas tree and lightings, gifts and stockings. Indeed, it is a costly holiday to celebrate.
Eva, a Filipina resident in Muscat, said she would have to pay an arm and a leg this festive season in the Sultanate. “We usually have friends and family coming over to celebrate Christmas with us. So I would have to buy the usual turkey and ham for dinner. On top of that, there is wine, a Christmas tree, some decorations, costumes and gifts and all of that is just too expensive this year. And all this for only a couple of days’ worth of festivities,” Eva lamented. Some opt to get their meals from abroad and have their own traditions instead of paying for the overly expensive produce in the Sultanate.
