Poultry Remains Mississippi's Top Crop Despite Recession

Published by Phoebe Judge on 03 Jan 2010 1:24pm
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Poultry has remained agricultural king in Mississippi for another year. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on why this commodity continues to claim the top spot.

Poultry has been the top commodity in Mississippi for the past decade bringing in $2.3 billion dollars in 2009. While many other of the state’s crops and commodities have felt the effects of this latest recession, the poultry industry has remained relatively unscathed. Dr. John Michael Riley, assistant professor in the department of agricultural economics at Mississippi State, says that’s a direct result of people looking for cheap sources of protein,

“The price of chickens at the retail level are very competitive. They’re a cheaper product compared to the other proteins, so that gives it an advantage during hard economic times when consumers go to the grocery store. Chickens look very favorable on the meat shelf.”

The third congressional district of Mississippi produces more broiler chickens than any other district in the nation, and Jackson is home to one of the largest egg companies in the country. Mark Leggett, president of the Mississippi Poultry Association says one of the reasons for the poultry industries success is that the product is so versatile,

“There used to be the old thing that we make use of every part of the pig except the oink. I think that’s probably truer of the chickens, that just about every part of the chicken is used or reused.”

The demand for chicken feet in China and dark meat in places like Northern Europe means Mississippi’s poultry export business is thriving. That’s a good sign for the future says chicken farmer Danny Thornton,

“Most of your expansion in the industry will be done to gear into the export market. For instance if China opened up, good gracious, with the population they got it would be tremendous.”

Poultry production makes up about half of all the agricultural production Mississippi, with the largest concentration of production taking place in the southern part of the state.