The Mississippi broiler industry made economic strides in 2016, according to a report from the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service.
Poultry remains the state’s top agricultural commodity with an estimated value of $2.9 billion – more than doubling the impact of the state’s second-leading agricultural sector, forestry, which had a farm-gate value of $1.4 billion.
Two major factors impacted the economic growth of the broiler industry in 2016: an increase in production and an increase in chicken meat prices.
“Broiler productin was up 1.8 percent, and prices were 60 cents per pound in 2016, up from 54 cents per pound over the previous year,” said Brian Williams, MSU Extension agricultural economist, said in a press release.
Mississippi egg industry has more challenging 2016
However, the egg industry in Mississippi had a different set of circumstances to deal with. According to Williams, the value of eggs decreased 58 percent as the industry recovered from the avian influenza outbreak of 2015. Mississippi’s egg industry prospered during that time frame as no flocks in the state were affected by the virus while prices reached a peak of $1.96 per dozen in November 2015. In June, the price dropped to about 48 cents per dozen.
Mississippi egg production dropped by about 1.5 percent during 2016.
