December 28, 2023
US poultry industry gains footing from tough 2022, sees lower poultry prices
The US poultry industry bounced back from a difficult 2022, resulting in lower chicken, turkey and egg prices for consumers in 2023, despite the ongoing challenge of avian influenza and recent plant closures.
Jada Thompson, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said 2023 brought some relief to poultry producers in the United States, even while noting some difficulties.
"Producers had an easing of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks across the United States compared to 2022," Thompson said. "We had strong bird placements, but broiler slaughter went down slightly. The plant closures across the United States reduced the slaughter capacity. However, across the year, overall poultry production was up compared to last year, with a slight dip in that trend in the fourth quarter."
The HPAI outbreak that began last year has become the worst outbreak of the deadly virus in the US. As of December 14, HPAI affected 426 commercial flocks, 586 backyard flocks and more than 72.5 million birds, according to the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Thompson said that broiler production had a strong start to the year but experienced a slowdown in August, in part due to plant closures.
"This is likely driven by changes in production capacity, shifting technology demands of the industry and continued HPAI pressures affecting domestic and international markets," she said.
Thompson noted that in spite of these pressures, prices were down compared to 2022.
"This was driven by increased supply," she explained. "While HPAI still affected flocks across the country, the number of farms affected was substantially lower than last year, meaning supplies were able to recover.
"For example, egg prices were up by 145% in 2022 but are down 29% in 2023, year-over-year. We saw good recovery in supplies, placements, hatching and sales for eggs. We rounded out the year in a much healthier place.
"We are seeing similar impacts in broiler and turkey prices as well."
Thompson added that an increased supply of turkey helped bring prices down in time for the holiday season.
"2022 was a hard year due to HPAI and inflationary pressures. Good supplies led into the 2023 holiday season, making Thanksgiving dinner more affordable this year," Thompson said.
Arkansas is third in the national ranking of turkey production, according to the latest USDA Turkeys Raised report.
According to Thompson, poultry processing plant closures negatively affected growers this year.
"This impacted producers that were under contract, those that wanted to go under contract, as well as plant labor and customers," Thompson said. "These plants weren't operating at full capacity, but they were a source of income for Arkansans."
She explained that many growers were able to get a new contract, but some were not so fortunate.
"There were some grower contracts that were bought out and had to look for a different integrator or get out of the poultry business," Thompson said. "This impacts farm lenders and local communities.
"We are still seeing strong production numbers for Arkansas and should continue to be a national leader for broiler production."
- The Daily Citizen