Frozen chicken popular with food banks, council says

By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press

The U.S. government is purchasing as much as $14 million worth of dark meat chicken that's been piling up because of Russia's effective ban on American imports.

The products will be used for various federal food and nutrition assistance programs, including food banks, according to a USDA news release.

The purchase will proceed even with the announced poultry agreement between the U.S. and Russia, said Hakim Fobia, an agency spokesman.

The purchase represents only a small portion of the dark meat that's been left available by the temporary loss of trade with Russia, where American poultry companies have had great success selling dark meat.

"Fourteen million dollars is not a whole lot of money, frankly, but every little bit helps," said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council.

"This will give them an excellent product ... for (the chicken) to be distributed to food banks and other domestic feeding programs," Lobb said. "It's very popular with food banks ... Some of them have refrigeration units, and frozen chicken is very popular with them."

An economic analysis has to be done before such purchases are made, Fobia told the Capital Press in an e-mail. Asked whether the government plans to buy more of the meat to use up more of the stockpile, Fobia said no details of any future purchase are available.

The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service buys food products each year for the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Summer Food Service Program, the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and the Emergency Food Assistance Program.

A chicken consists of roughly half white meat and half dark meat, but American consumers strongly prefer white meat, Lobb said. U.S. processors' success at selling the dark meat overseas has been hampered by the closed Russian market as well as a somewhat restricted Chinese market, he said.

The glut of dark meat could mean some nice deals for consumers, but it wouldn't affect prices for white meat, Lobb said.

"The demand for white meat is very strong, so we don't have a problem with that," he said. "Typically when these trade situations occur, you can get some real deals, particularly on leg quarters. You don't necessarily see it on thighs and drumsticks."

Online

USDA Agricultural Marketing Service: www.ams.usda.gov