Turns out that soaring chicken prices are the result of popular fast-food chains releasing overwhelmingly popular chicken sandwiches within the past couple of years.
At the beginning of 2021, chicken prices were very low for restaurants. Mainly this was due to a majority of restaurants still struggling to open back up. This meant they weren’t buying as much from the poultry industry, which led to a lot of chicken in storage facilities, and that brought on low-priced chicken.
Since then, prices seem to be drastically changing. The Wall Street Journal said that last year on average, boneless skinless chicken breast was $1 per pound and now it’s over $2 for a pound.
This leads people to ask the question, how is the price that much higher over a five-month period? The price hike seems to come back to the fact that many fast-food restaurants have jumped on the crispy chicken sandwich train. Chains like McDonald’s, Popeyes, and of course Chick-fil-A have all added popular versions of the chicken sandwich to their menus and the trend isn’t over yet.
More chains plan to release new chicken sandwiches in the near future.
