- Approximately 30 federally-inspected companies are involved in the business of raising, processing and marketing chickens on a “vertically integrated” basis – that is, the company is able to ensure quality and consumer requirements at each step of the process.
- About 25,000 family farmers have production (growout) contracts with the companies. Approximately 95 percent of broiler chickens are produced on these farms, with the remaining 5 percent raised on company-owned farms or farms without contracts. Family farms also produce pullets and hatching eggs under contracts.
- In 2022, over 9.2 billion broiler chickens, weighing more than 59.5 billion pounds, liveweight, were produced. More than 46 billion pounds of chicken products were marketed, measured on a ready-to-cook basis. That was a 2.9% increase from 2021.
- The United States has the largest broiler chicken industry in the world with about 16 percent of production exported to other countries.
- The United States is the second leading broiler exporter in the world, behind Brazil.
- The top 5 export destinations (value) in 2022 were China, Mexico, Canada, Cuba and Taiwan.
- The top 5 export destinations (volume) in 2022 were Mexico, China, Cuba, Taiwan, and Philippines.
- Americans consume more chicken (young meat chicken and fowl) than anyone else in the world – 100.6 pounds per capita in 2022 – the number one protein consumed in the United States.
- The top 7 broiler producing states are: North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, and Delaware.
Source: USDA and NCC. No estimated or forward-looking figures are provided by NCC.
