For Chicken, by Chicken, of Chicken

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

And today we are celebrating – you guessed it – chicken. In fact, we’re celebrating all month.

September is National Chicken Month, celebrating the most-consumed meat in the U.S. Two-thirds of all chickens in America are raised in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas.

Chicken is also one of the top agricultural exports for the U.S. Foreign markets are increasingly important, accounting for $4.4 billion and 16 percent of world production in 2022. The U.S. is the second-largest exporter in the world as more than 145 countries imported U.S. frozen chicken leg quarters, legs, and thighs last year.

I always think it’s interesting the difference in preference. While American consumers prefer chicken breast meat, dark meat is more widely desired and consumed internationally. Most U.S. chicken meat exports are often destined for low and middle-income countries that value safe, affordable, and tasty high-protein options. In 2022, almost all of the U.S. broiler meat exports went to developing economies. Fourteen percent of shipments were exported to some of the least developed countries in the world.