06/19/08 Northwest Poultry Industry

Northwest Poultry Industry. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The northwest is not famous for poultry. We are tops in tree fruit and coming on strong in the wine industry plus wheat and other commodities but when it comes to poultry, it's paltry according to the Washington Fryer Commission's, Sue Broderick. BRODERICK: We think it's big and certainly the consumers in Washington State like to eat Washington grown chicken but we're just a drop in the bucket when compared to other producing states. The top 3 producing states in the country are Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama. Here in the northwest there are two producers, Foster Farmers and Draper Valley. While else where companies like Pilgrims Pride and Tyson Foods produce considerably more chicken in a week than the two northwest companies combined produce in a year. Still the industry is producing good product here and we like to eat it. BRODERICK: Well in terms of per capita consumption, I believe the USDA statistics say that we're at about 85 pounds per person for chicken this year which is more than any other meat product individually. Of course as we talked yesterday, the poultry industry has really been struggling due to the high costs of fuel and corn but Broderick says that producers are finding ways to offset those costs. BRODERICK: Although the growers are challenged with the increase in cost, the good news is that they are able to sell the nutrients from their chicken farms. So when they clean out their chicken bars and remove the excess litter they sell that to orchardists, other farmers and home gardeners for fertilizer and that's really helped to supplement their income. There are fryer commissions in both Washington and Oregon but do share the same producers. Forty years ago according to Broderick it was not uncommon for retailers to put the Grown In Washington label on chicken from other states that was actually cheaper. The commission was formed to standardize and stop that practice. BRODERICK: But both processors have kind of gotten away from using the grown in Washington label exclusively because they have farms in both Oregon and Washington so if you look at your chicken packages closely now even though the processors brand names are the same, it's Foster Farmers or Draper Valley, if you look closely it says grown in Oregon or Washington. For more information on northwest produced chicken go to www.cluckcluck.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.