The Weekly Chicken Market Update

The PacFoods Market Blog will be presently weekly commentary on the chicken market from PacFoods owner Dave Allen!

• White meat markets still weak, but I’m starting to hear conflicting story lines: Although actual market on breast meat has dropped last few days, product availability has dried up some.
• First of the month ads will start to ship end of this week, and breast meat should be the best value.
• Some of the challenges the industry faces in the near term are increased egg sets along with increased chick placements, cooler weather means heavier bird size, and increased feed cost in corn and soy input cost. This all spells TRAINWRECK for the chicken industry!
• Thanksgiving Holiday always is a tough time for chicken movement, so we should continue to see some volatility. We may level out here for a few weeks (first of the month), then a little softer mid November. The best strategy probably is keep inventories in close for most of November.
• Dark meat still in good shape, but I expect thigh meat to slow down more which should lead to a little inventory build and a little lower prices in mid-November.
• Wings are steady but a little behind this year vs. last year.
• The market should perk up going into December.