Chicken wings and breasts as relief for consumers during inflation season

In the last months, the lower prices for chicken wings and breasts are creating an excellent opportunity for supermarkets and […]

In the last months, the lower prices for chicken wings and breasts are creating an excellent opportunity for supermarkets and restaurants to rank chicken as an inflation-fighting protein product for consumers.

According to CoBank, this is considered good news after covid. Most of that time, poultry production struggled to have enough products and supply consumer demands (especially take-out wings) despite the challenges and constraints in 2020 and 2021. Also, the slaughter rates by week were between 4 to 6 percent above year-ago levels, to reduce around 4 percent YoY until 2020 (Figure 1).

The drop in the slaughter rates led to significant problems for wing supplies. This is as "we’re stuck with the age-old problem of each bird having only two wings," said Brian Earnest,  Lead economist for animal protein in CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division.