Poultry: Overview
From nuggets to feather meal: where each bird ends up
What this tab covers What the commodity is used for, why, in what volumes and with what alternatives, and its chain from mine or field to end user. Also the latest price moves, top recent news, three things to know, and buttons into each tab.Key uses
| Use | Share | Annual volume | Why this commodity | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh whole birds and cuts for home cooking | n/a | n/a basis | Chicken is the cheapest meat to produce at scale because broilers convert feed fastest and reach slaughter weight in weeks. It faces no major religious taboo, so it sells in India, the Middle East, China and the West alike. US per-person use was 102.9 lb in 2025. FAOSTAT 2024; USDA WASDE, Oct 2026 | Pork Beef Fish Eggs and pulses (protein) |
| Food service and further-processed products (fried chicken, nuggets, marinated and cooked meat) | n/a | n/a basis | Boneless breast and thigh meat is easy to portion, cook fast and coat, which suits quick-service chains and ready meals. Integrators such as Tyson earn higher margins on prepared products than on raw birds. Tyson Foods FY2025 results (chicken sales $16.8 billion) | Pork and beef patties Plant-based nuggets |
| Frozen chicken for export (leg quarters, wings, whole birds) | 13.4% | about 15.1 Mt a yearbasis | Western consumers prefer breast meat, so leg quarters and wings are cheap and flow to Asia, Africa, Mexico and the Middle East. Brazil's low feed costs make it the largest exporter, with 26.5% of world export value in 2024. USDA PSD (Oct 2026); UN Comtrade HS 0207, 2024 | Domestic production Imported pork or buffalo meat |
| Rendered by-products (poultry meal, feather meal, fat) | n/a | n/a basis | Feathers, blood, bones and offal are rendered into protein meals and fat for pet food, aquafeed and livestock feed. This adds revenue and keeps waste out of landfill. | Fishmeal Soybean meal Meat and bone meal |
From field to user
- Genetics and breeder flocks A few breeding companies supply grandparent and parent stock; hybrid lines last one generation, so integrators keep buying new stock (Morgan, on Shaver Poultry).
- Hatchery Parent flocks lay hatching eggs that are incubated into day-old chicks; the US set aside 1.16 billion dozen eggs for hatching in 2025 (WASDE).
- Feed milling Rations are mainly maize and soybean meal (Morgan); feed is the largest cost of raising a broiler.
- Grow-out Contract farmers raise chicks in sheds to slaughter weight; average carcass weight was 2.1 kg in the US and Brazil and 1.5 kg in India in 2024 (FAOSTAT).
- Slaughter and processing About 78.5 billion chickens were slaughtered worldwide in 2024 (FAOSTAT). Plants chill, cut and pack birds or cook them into further-processed products.
- Cold chain, trade and retail Chilled chicken goes to retailers and restaurants; frozen chicken moves by reefer container, with world exports of HS 0207 worth $34.2 billion in 2024 (UN Comtrade).
Price movement snapshot 2026-10-25
Chicken (World Bank monthly) 1.81 $/kg Month 2026-09 1 week no daily price 6 months +9.0% World production 128.3 m tonnes, 2024 Largest producer United States 15.73% of worldThree things to know
- World chicken meat output grew from 35.4 to 128.3 million tonnes between 1990 and 2024 (FAOSTAT).
- In 2024, chicken meat output (128.3 million tonnes) exceeded pig meat output (125.4 million tonnes) (FAOSTAT).
- Morgan reports Philippine feed millers owning nearly half the country's broilers in the late 1970s (pdf p. 250).
Top recent news snapshot 2026-10-25, last 30 days
- Chicken prices defy Dasara trend, near Rs 300/kg in APThe Times of India · 2026-10-13
- Top Chicken Supplier Brazil Acts to Ease Hit From VirusBloomberg.com · 2026-10-20
- Broiler sets, placements fall on week, rise on yearBrownfield Ag News · 2026-10-07
- FDA approves KemTRACE for broiler breeders and laying hensFeedstuffs · 2026-10-14
- Broiler sets, placements above year ago levelsBrownfield Ag News · 2026-10-23