Dive Brief:
- In its turkey hatchery report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed a 7% decrease in how many poults, or young turkeys, were placed on feed in May as compared to May 2014. This was also a 1% decrease from April 2015.
- This is in part due to the U.S. outbreak of bird flu, which has claimed 7.8 million turkeys in seven states this year. While the virus has certainly impacted the food industry, particularly brands like Hormel Food Corp.'s Jennie-O Turkey Store and Post Holdings, Inc.'s Michael Foods, that number is still just a small percentage of the total 237.5 million turkeys produced in 2014.
- Debate surrounds whether these numbers mean consumers will see fewer turkeys available for purchase come Thanksgiving time. May and June are the deadline for placing poults on feed to be ready for slaughter come November, and with a 7% drop for May, that could mean significantly fewer turkeys going to market. However, other analysts noted a "bunching effect" in the production cycle and said that most turkeys consumers buy this November will have been frozen, produced before bird flu struck the Midwest.
Dive Insight:
On the other end of the poultry industry, the chicken and egg segments have been impacted by bird flu as well, but not in the same way. As 10% of the egg-laying hen supply has had to be slaughtered, prices for eggs and breaker eggs, which are commonly used by processed foods companies, have skyrocketed. That's if those eggs are available at all, as supply shortages are now common as well.
For chickens meant to be eaten, however, prices have actually dropped. The bird flu has caused many countries to stop buying chickens from the U.S., which has increased the supply of birds for Americans back home, causing prices to decrease. "At the end of April, 181 million pounds of leg quarters were in cold storage, 80 percent more than last year. Leg quarters are the largest chicken meat export product," according to the Associated Press.