While the protein market has seen its share of ups and downs this year, the turkey industry has focused on finding balance in the marketplace, investing in the future of the industry and identifying new markets and audiences for our products.
Poultry retains its place as a consumer favorite, and the industry continues to produce more chicken and turkey products in response — but price pressures remain real, and new markets must be leveraged for the industry to take the next step.
With a continued growing economy and employment environment, demand for chicken and competing meats will most likely see 2018 build on the success experienced in 2017, says Tom Super, senior vice president of communications for the National Chicken Council (NCC), Washington, D.C.
This year, the turkey industry hopes fall will be a season in which it finally begins to shake the after-effects of market disruption that dates back to the 2015 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak.
Turkey’s resilience and wide geographic dispersal has maintained the supply reliability of turkey meat nationally, despite a leading production region suffering disproportionate losses to highly pathogenic avian influenza in spring 2015.