CHAMPION of local produce and top Westcountry chef Rick Stein made a flying visit to a Chagford turkey farm on Monday to launch a new hotline designed to encourage consumers to buy local this Christmas.

The outspoken chef, who is a frequent visitor to Dartmoor and the award-winning Gidleigh Hotel at Chagford, said there was one big difference between locally reared turkeys and the mass produced variety ? flavour!

He was speaking at Frenchbeer Farm ? owned by Michael and Christine Malseed who have been rearing turkeys for the Christmas market for 18 years.

The couple?s farm was chosen to launch the National Farmers? Union nationwide Turkey Hotline which signposts shoppers to the best British birds available fresh from the farm.

At the same time the NFU issued some stark statistics about the decline of the British turkey farmer who, they said, was being hampered by ?cheap imports and red tape.?

Over the last ten years there has been a 35% decline in turkey production in the UK, and in the same period the number of British turkey farms and processing businesses had halved.

The NFU estimates that around nine million turkeys will have been imported into this country already this year.

Regional spokesman Paul Cooper said the union was trying to get the ?Red Tractor? symbol on turkeys so consumers knew when they were buying British.

?A lot of turkeys come into this country but are bagged up in such a way as makes it difficult to know where they were sourced,? he said. ?We are saying to consumers that buying from a local farmer is the most reputable source.?

The flavour and finish of farm reared turkeys is considered superior because they are dry plucked and hung for at least seven days as opposed to being wet plucked in big machines and packaged straight away.

Mr Stein, whose latest TV series ?Local Heroes? focused on small producers up and down the country, said in this country we had got into a rut where we think food should be ever cheaper.

?In buying cheap we compromise on flavour ? everybody in Devon should be buying turkeys from a farm like this because it is supporting the local economy. It is so important to put money back into where we live.?

The chef added that in an area affected so badly by the foot and mouth crisis turkey rearing was a good diversification for cattle and sheep farmers.

The NFU?s national chairman of poultry Charles Bourns, said the message was aimed at the housewife and consumer this Christmas.

?By phoning the hotline we will put you in touch with a local producer who will hopefully provide them with their best Christmas turkey ever,? he said.

?In Devon consumers are very good at buying local which is why we have chosen to launch the hotline here ? but we need to get the message across to people in the more urban areas and new residents to Devon.?

Michael and Christine Malseed rear around 3,000 a year and supply many of the local butchers in the Okehampton and Chagford areas.

The turkey hotline is 0870 060 3436 and operates from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday until Christmas Eve.