Friday, January 30, 2009
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo’s football team won’t have a place in this year’s Super Bowl hoopla, but don’t worry, its chicken wings will.
Amid unnerving media reports that spread from here to New York City and even Seattle about a potential shortage of the Buffalo-born appetizer heading into the big game, authorities say yes, production is down and yes, prices are up.
“But there’s plenty of wings,” assured Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council.
For those scoring at home, that’ll mean about 1 billion wings scarfed down over the Super Bowl weekend.
In the last week or so, some fretted that the spicy snack would be scarce for a number of reasons: the highest wholesale and retail prices in recent memory; an industrywide, economy-driven drop in production of 5 percent to 6 percent; a bankruptcy filing from major Texas producer Pilgrim’s Pride, though it remains in business; and a push to sell wings by restaurant chains like Pizza Hut and KFC. Taken together, connoisseurs worried that demand would outstrip supply.
And chicken wings were indeed missing for a day from the kitchen of one Niagara Falls restaurateur, but that was by design. Owner Sam Musolino refused to serve wings at Sammy’s Pizzeria Monday to protest the annual price increases that arrive every year just in time for the big football weekend.
“They’re basically just taking advantage of the pizzerias,” said Musolino, who said he was paying $46 per 40-pound box of wings before the price jumped to $78.
Lobb said the price is up because feed prices have gone through the roof and chicken producers have had to cut production as consumers have cut spending at casual dining restaurants that favor chicken dishes. That slump recently led to a glut of chicken on the market.