While the total inventory of chicken in cold storage is down slightly in the U.S., inventories of frozen chicken wings continue to build.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cold Storage report, which was released on June 24, the stocks of frozen chicken in all U.S. warehouses at the end of May was 803.2 million pounds, down from the 804.9 million pounds recorded at the end of April.
However, chicken wing inventories continued to climb in May, with 82 million pounds in cold storage, up four percent from the end-of-April amount of 78.8 million, the agency reported. The increase in supply appears steady, as there were 76.9 million pounds of chicken wings in cold storage at the end of March.
When compared to the same date of the previous year, the frozen wing supply is up by about 86 percent, as there were 44.2 million pounds in cold storage.
Leg quarter stocks also up
Also making a noticeable month-over-month climb was the supply of leg quarters in cold storage.
The recent USDA report showed leg quarter supplies had reached 113.9 million pounds, up from the 111 million pounds reported at the end of April.
However, the amount of leg quarters in cold storage is still down about 31 percent when compared to the last day of May 2015.
