Poultry products remain popular with consumers and the industry has plenty of open road ahead; but external mitigating factors continued to tamp down sales in 2016 and have some areas in need of a tuneup.
Overall sales of poultry were down less than 1 percent in 2016 from 2015 because of a decline in poultry prices as well as total volume of poultry sold, according to Chicago-based Mintel International’s Poultry U.S. report, published in November 2016. While sales are forecast to reach nearly $27 billion by 2021, this is less than 2 percent growth year over year.
Mintel’s foodservice analyst Caleb Bryant believes poultry’s price drop can be attributed to the price of beef dropping dramatically, with forecasts projecting this trend will continue.