In many countries around the world, chicken finds its way to the dinner table in some form or other — whether it’s roast chicken in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s household in California, slow-braised chicken dum pukht in restaurants in India, or its inclusion in the Thai dish chicken pad see ew. So where is all the chicken coming from, you ask? As it happens, the biggest producer of chicken meat in the world is the United States.
The U.S. produced 19,599 kilotons of what is known as broiler chicken (so named to indicate that they are raised for consumption, not egg-laying purposes) in 2022 (per HelgiLibrary). This is over 5,000 kilotons more than Brazil, which came in second at 14,524 kiltons, and China, which came in third, producing 14,300 kilotons of chicken. Altogether, the U.S. accounted for nearly 16% of all chicken meat produced globally, and when combined with Brazil and China, the total rose to nearly 40%. That means almost half the chicken meat in the world comes from just three countries.
Where does all that chicken go?
With the U.S. as the top producer of chicken meat in the world, you might be wondering what happens to all that protein. In 2022, about 85% of that white meat stayed within the United States, which isn’t surprising considering how demand for poultry has increased over the last 20 years (per USDA). This is reflected in the dramatic jump in broiler chicken sales between 2021 and 2022 — a 60% increase (per USDA). Americans love their chicken, and they have made it the most-consumed meat in the country since 2013, when the average person was eating 57.7 pounds per year, compared to 53.6 pounds of beef and just 43.4 pounds of pork annually (per USDA). It helps that, despite rising food costs, chicken remains one of the most affordable and accessible proteins on the market — and it’s also incredibly versatile.
What happened, then, to the remaining 15% of chicken meat that wasn’t consumed in the U.S.? It was exported to other countries. The main destinations tend to be Mexico, Canada, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines, with other significant amounts shipped to Guatemala, Vietnam, Angola, Hong Kong, and the Dominican Republic. In total, a little less than half of the exported chicken meat stayed on the North American continent, though the U.S. does export to over 100 different countries.
