Chicken wing sales are showing signs of setting a sales record during Sunday’s Super Bowl football game between Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The National Chicken Council in the United States estimates sales will increase by two per cent to 1.42 billion wings and drums.
According to Cold Storage Reports, surplus wing and drum stocks in cold storage were reduced by 53 per cent during November and December, as restaurants and retailers prepared for the typical rise in demand culminating with this year’s Super Bowl.
A recent survey by the National Chicken Council showed COVID-19 didn’t slow down demand for chicken wings and that 25 per cent of respondents consumed more wings and drums during the pandemic.
However, in Canada the chicken industry has been so disrupted by COVID-19 that the national agency has trimmed production to less than base quota until at least mid-May.
The main disruption is a sharp decline in restaurant and foodservice sales that has not fully offset by an increase in supermarket sales.
There are also disruptions at slaughter and processing plants because of employee absenteeism due to the COVID-19 either making workers ill or too frightened to report for work.
