Poultry output may turn into a dogfight in future

Companies fear expansion will eat into profit boom

As if Americans didn’t have enough chicken on the menu already, production of the nation’s mostpopular meat is headed for the biggest growth spurt in more than a decade.

Companies including Tyson Foods and Sanderson Farms are leading an industry expansion with new processing plants from Tennessee to Texas, fueled by years of profit gains from cheap feed grain and record demand.

Even retailer Costco is getting into the act, building its first-ever poultry plant in Nebraska.

While U.S. consumers are eating more chicken nuggets, boneless breasts and wings than ever, Sanderson estimates the industry’s production will increase 3 percent annually from 2019 through 2021. That’s the most since a three-year expansion ended in 2005, creating a possible dogfight for market share and jeopardizing prices that last year were 10 percent higher than in 2016.

“I don’t see this construction causing prices to crash, but it certainly is going to take away from any upside,” said Tom Elam, president of Indiana poultry consultant FarmEcon.

The industry has been riding a profit boom as low feed costs allowed farmers to raise bigger birds and more of them. Americans have been eating more chicken than any other meat for two decades, but demand has taken off in recent years.

Per-capita consumption will jump to a record 92.4 pounds this year, up 15 percent since 2012, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.

Tyson, which also produces beef and pork, had record earnings in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

Analysts predict quarterly earnings gains later this month for Greeley, Colo.-based Pilgrim’s Pride and Laurel, Missi.-based Sanderson Farms. The two companies, along with Tyson, control almost half of domestic supply.

Poultry production has been profitable since 2011, when surging corn and soybean prices led to losses that forced companies to cut back operations. Since then, output has continued to increase to almost 19 million metric tons this year, mostly by raising bigger birds, USDA data show.

Most of the processing expansions will be completed beginning next year.

Sanderson, which has added seven plants since 1993 and has been more aggressive about adding capacity, recently broke ground in eastern Texas.

Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson, the biggest producer, plans to build its first new chicken plant in two decades, opening in 2019 in western Tennessee.

Costco says its $300 million plant in Nebraska will produce almost 100 million chickens a year, supplying about a quarter of what its stores need and reducing costs by 10 cents to 35 cents a bird.

RICK BOWMER/AP 2011 Costco is building a $300 million poultry plant, its first, in Nebraska as the retailer moves to get into the chicken business. Poultry production has been profitable since 2011.