Animal protein demand has been exceptional in recent years, but chicken saw the largest growth at 19% over the past decade. Chicken fulfills many of the most common current consumer values when it comes to protein, ranking highly for taste, value, price and nutrition, Brian Earnest, animal protein economist at CoBank, explained during the “2025 Market Outlook for Meat and Poultry” session at the 2025 Meat Conference.
Demand for chicken is so strong that it has overtaken beef – and even replacing beef in some cases, he added, noting the popularity of the McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac released in late 2024.
Shift to dark meat
Dark meat is typically considered an export product for the U.S. market, but a dislocation is occurring in more recent years.
Earnest stated that this tells him U.S. consumer is finding dark meat more appealing, perhaps in part due to the higher prices of other cuts. U.S. consumers also tend to prefer boneless options like breast meat compared to the bone-in products like thigh meat. New further processing technology has made it easier to debone thigh meat, which is also helping to drive popularity.
Replicating the restaurant experience
“COVID-19 lockdowns forced consumers to cook at home, but inflation is bringing them back to kitchen,” explained Earnest.
Despite a desire to save money, consumers still want to replicate that restaurant experience. This has helped fuel purchases of specialized kitchen appliances, like grills and air fryers.
Earnest praised chicken brands for capitalizing on the air fryer trend by putting cooking instructions for the appliance directly on the poultry packaging, making it easy for consumers to create that premium experience.
Attend the 2025 Chicken Marketing Summit
To hear more of Earnest’s insights on chicken demand, sign up to attend the 2025 Chicken Marketing Summit, held at the DeSoto Savannah in Savannah, Georgia, on July 28-30, 2025. This one-of-a-kind-event will feature two content tracks. The first will focus on consumers and how technology impacts them, while the second will look at the impact new technologies have from an operational standpoint for chicken companies, retail and foodservice.
Serving a unique cross-section of the chicken supply chain, the Chicken Marketing Summit explores issues and trends in food marketing and consumer chicken consumption patterns and purchasing behavior.
Registration is now open.
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