Changing Consumer Preference Drives Dark Meat Chicken Demand

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, CO – Evolving customer demands are driving industries to rethink markets and products. According to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division, one example is in the U.S. chicken industry. Advances in mechanical deboning technology have allowed chicken producers to capture the emerging demand for dark meat while addressing the ever-present labor shortage. Two key and changing demographic drivers are behind the slow but steady shift in U.S. demand from white chicken meat to dark meat: age and ethnicity. As Baby Boomers age, their consumption of meat, including white chicken meat, is declining. Meanwhile, millennials are now hitting their stride in income, spending power and meat consumption. Their generation grew up with international dining options that often feature dark meat as the chicken ingredient of choice. Latino and Asian populations are growing in the states and dark meat chicken, rather than white meat, is typically used in the cuisines of their cultures. As these populations continue to grow domestically, so will the demand for dark meat chicken. Advances in whole leg deboning technology have improved yields using half of the labor required of hand deboning. Since chicken processing costs have increased about 15 percent in the last decade and continue to grow, largely driven by labor costs that typically account for half the total processing cost, new technology is likely to expand further.