Australian chicken prices set to jump on higher grain cost

Chicken prices in Australia are set to jump between 5% and 10% on the back of rising wheat prices, according to industry experts.

An average A$10 (US$9.66) chook could go up by 50 cents to a dollar as rising production costs force farmers to pass costs on to consumers.

However, Australian Chicken Meat Federation executive director Dr Andreas Dubs played down the increase, arguing it would be incremental. He believes that an average increase of 5-10% is not likely to have a major impact.

Dubs said the rising price of grain used to feed chickens was the main culprit for the rise, responsible for up to 60% of production costs. ''A big part of the overall production costs is linked to wheat prices,'' he said, adding that local wheat prices were linked to the global wheat price.

Meanwhile, Dubs noted that ''intensive'' farming had led to improvements in productivity and kept prices steady over the past 50 years.