Chicken Bounces Back Post Recession

CHARLESTON. S.C. — After a three-year slump, chicken consumption is on the rise in U.S. restaurants and homes, according to Bernard Leonard, chairman of the National Chicken Council.

“As the economy continues to recover, total sales this year at restaurants are expected to increase 3% to 4% [unadjusted for inflation] and flat to 1% if you take inflation into consideration,” Leonard said at a U.S. Poultry & Egg Association and NCC-sponsored food seminar. “Chicken will share in that improvement along with other meats.”

According to Leonard, general chicken consumption rose 2.5 pounds per person last year after a 6.7-pound combined loss for the three years before.

This downturn in chicken consumption was unusual. Leonard said a three-year chicken consumption loss “had never happened before since the U.S. Department of Agriculture started keeping records for broiler consumption in 1935.”

Citing a long-term trend for increased chicken consumption and decreased red meat consumption, Leonard said both proteins were hurt by the recession and lack of meat availability from 2007 through 2009. “Two main reasons for the slippage in the past few years were, one, a weak general economy and, two, reduced protein availability driven by U.S. meat exports and significant increases in the cost of the corn and soybeans used for animal feed that forced reductions in flock and herd sizes,” said Leonard, who is also group vice president of food service at Tyson Foods.