Despite the alarmist headlines that surfaced around the time of the Super Bowl, there is no real shortage of chicken wings in the marketplace. But sellers are facing an odd wing problem lately: The chickens they come from are getting bigger and bigger.
Why is that a problem? Bigger chickens equate to bigger wings—and more meat per wing provided by restaurants and wholesale suppliers. The result is that “five wings yield more ounces of chicken than six used to,” as Buffalo Wild Wings CEO Sally Smith told stock analysts recently, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Bigger birds, which have been produced by years of breeding improvements, are great for businesses that sell chicken breasts and thighs by the pound. Wings, on the other hand, are generally sold to consumers not per pound but per unit.
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