This is the best time of year for sports fans, because the Super Bowl, or the NFL grandest celebration will be held in Glendale, Arizona.
It’s also a heightened time for chickens on farms everywhere around the world.
…the number of actual chickens slaughtered last year fell, causing a drop of about 50 million wings, government data show. That smaller supply is what’s triggering the pricey part of the equation. The cost of wholesale wings sold by processors in Georgia, which sets the benchmark for the nation, has surged 8.2 percent this month to $1.715 a pound, the biggest jump to start a year since 2012 Via Bloomberg.
Americans will consume 1.25 billion wings when game day arrives Feb. 1. That estimate, provided by the National Chicken Council, is unchanged from last year’s Super Bowl.
“Wings are just all over menus,” Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Chicago-based research firm Technomic Inc., said in a telephone interview Jan. 22. Demand for wings remains “very high with consumers because they’re customizable,” he said. “There’s a health halo around it, because it’s chicken. There are a lot of flavor profiles, and it’s a fun finger food.”