AUSTIN (KXAN) – Ahead of the Super Bowl LVII this Sunday, football and wing lovers can expect to purchase chicken wings for cheaper than they did last year.
“Chicken products really across the board – if we look at wholesale prices – they are dramatically lower than they were a year ago,” said David Anderson, a professor and economist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
“Last year, chicken prices went to a record high,” Anderson said. “I mean, they were outrageously high.”
Since chicken prices were so high last year, Anderson said that companies responded by increasing chicken production. Because there was more supply, the steep prices dipped.
“USDA weekly retail price data [shows] they are more than $1 below where they were a year ago. So some pretty dramatically lower prices for this kind of super bowl favorite,” he said.
Anderson thinks part of the reason for this price decrease could be that some consumers were unwilling to pay for the inflated chicken prices last year. This, coinciding with increased production, has led to cheaper wings for this weekend’s game, he said.
These lower prices may not last a while. Anderson said companies will likely cut production because there is less of a profit incentive while prices are so low.
The National Chicken Council released earlier this month its annual Chicken Wing Report, predicting that Americans will break the record this year and eat an estimated 1.45 billion wings over the weekend. This figure represents an increase of 2% from last year’s report, the equivalent of 84 million more wings, according to the National Chicken Council.
The Council said 1.45 billion wings are enough to give every adult and child four wings each.
“There’s holiday demand,” Anderson said. “Really, Super Bowl becomes one of those holiday demands, and wings are the beneficiary.”
