Food Costs

Get Ready to Pay More for Chicken Wings

About to become a rare delicacy.
About to become a rare delicacy. Photo: Shutterstock

Just in time for the Super Bowl comes a bit of bad news: Due to a drop in the number of chickens slaughtered since last year, the birds’ wings are somewhat scarce. In fact, according to one report there are 50 million fewer wings available than there were last year. And so, as you might expect, they’re getting more expensive. The Georgia wholesale chicken-wing price, the national benchmark for the commodity, has surged 8.2 percent this month, which is a 30 percent jump over last year’s price.

For right-minded individuals, the Super Bowl is synonymous with wings, so Americans are still expected to eat 1.2 billion of them during the February 1 game — more than 10 per Super Bowl viewer — even while prices rise, thanks to the shortage and growing competition from formerly non-wing-serving establishments like Pizza Hut. As a result, Buffalo Wild Wings, for instance, has already raised prices by 3 percent.

This might be a good time to consider picking up some foie’camole instead.

[Bloomberg]

Get Ready to Pay More for Chicken Wings