IPPE attendees can learn how the domestic and global economies are performing and how regulatory issues impact the poultry and egg industries.

The latest Rabobank Poultry Report finds the global market for poultry products challenged by rising consumer prices due to inflation, labor shortages and sharply higher distribution costs. The following is a Q&A with Rabobank Senior Animal Protein Analyst Christine McCracken.

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.

Average poultry production for the last 12 months is at an all-time high and is up 4.4 percent from the prior year. There are, however, some tentative signs of slower growth moving through early 2016.