The National Chicken Council reported that the price of chicken wings “will be most expensive ever during Super Bowl XLVII” due to a chicken shortage as a result of record high corn and feed prices.
According to the coucil, chicken companies produced 1 percent fewer birds last year because of last summer’s drought, which affected corn crops, and pressure from federal government to use 40 percent of the crops for fuel in the form of ethanol:
Simply put, less corn equals higher feed costs, which means fewer birds produced.
The Super Bowl has become the second biggest eating day of the year, and chicken wings the staple food for the event, so how will this affect your Super Bowl parties?
Don’t worry, there’s no need to dash to the super markets in fear of chicken wings running out — there will be plenty of wings for the noshing. And you’ll only be paying a few more cents per pound for the for the Super Bowl, which is just nine days away. Wholesale wings are currently at about $2.11 a pound in the Northeast, 26 cents higher than last year.
Still, an estimated 1.23 billion chicken wings are expected to be eaten at the February 3 showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens.