Record-high prices for burgers and pork sees demand for chicken soar
Americans are buying more chicken as a cheaper alternative just as fast-food restaurants ! add new menu items from wings to club sandwiches.
The sales surge has sent wholesale prices to an all-time high, boosted profit for processors including Tyson Foods, and left Ozark Mountain Poultry unable to keep up.
“We’re sold out,” Ed Fryar, CEO of Arkansas-based Ozark, which processes 3m pounds a week said. “Last fall, when I looked at 2014, I didn’t anticipate demand being as strong as it is. This is going to be a really good year for the industry.”
With whole birds at US supermarkets selling at half the per-pound cost of beef or pork, Americans will eat the most chicken in three years, while tight supply and high prices send red-meat demand to an all-time low, government data shows.
In a year when farm income is set to drop because of crop surpluses, the US Department of Agriculture says poultry farms will earn $203,500 (€147,000) on average, the most on records going back to 1996.
— Bloomberg
