Source: MEATINGPLACE, 8/12/16

Domestic demand for chicken dark meat is increasing, helping to offset the collapse in exports triggered last summer by international concerns about avian influenza in the U.S. poultry industry, analysts for the Daily Livestock Report said.

During April through June, wholesale leg quarter prices climbed 26 percent from the prior quarter, averaging 35 cents per pound, up from 32 cents in the same 2015 timeframe. Leg quarter exports fell by 154 million pounds at the same time.

“Some of the decline in exports was absorbed into frozen inventories (24 million pounds), leaving an additional 130 million pounds on top of the increase in fresh production to move into the domestic market, and it did so at rising prices,” the analysts noted in a report published by Steve Meyer and Len Steiner Inc.

U.S. broiler production overall rose 3 percent during the period from a year ago, with demand for dark meat a highlight, driven by a 2.2 percent increase in production.

The improved interest in chicken dark meat seems driven more by its affordability relative to other proteins than by changes in prices at the retail level, the analysts said.

While ample supply will keep a lid on wholesale chicken prices in the summer, leg quarters should be able to average in the low-30-cent range instead of the mid-20s registered in the last half of 2015, they said.

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