Delmarva chicken industry 2024 sales gross $4.8 billion
The Delmarva chicken community raised 613 million chickens, produced 4.6 billion pounds of shelf- and table-ready chicken, and generated $4.8 billion in sales in 2024, new economic statistics show. Compiled by Delmarva Chicken Association, the annual statistics measure the broad, stabilizing contribution that the chicken community makes to the regional economy.
Delmarva's chicken companies spent $1.3 billion on corn, wheat, soybeans and other feed ingredients in 2024, and paid their employees $902 million in wages, excluding benefits. The family farmers who contract with the companies to raise chickens earned $327 million in contract payments, or 1.8% more than in 2023 on an inflation-adjusted basis. Altogether, 1,206 farm families and 17,947 chicken company employees worked hand in hand to produce delicious Delmarva chicken.
For more than 100 years, raising and harvesting chickens has been an important part of Delmarva’s economy. Delmarva’s five chicken companies – Amick Farms, Allen Harim, Mountaire Farms, Perdue Farms and Tyson have a direct and induced economic impact of $17.4 billion on Delmarva, according to the National Chicken Council, and they pay $1.1 billion in state and local taxes. Real people working in industries as varied as banking, real estate, accounting, veterinary science and printing all depend on the chicken industry for their livelihood.
“Delmarva’s chicken growers and companies have been able to produce more food today than in the past for a rapidly growing region, even while farmland is lost to development, and we’re doing it in an environmentally responsible way,” said Holly Porter, DCA executive director. “Last year, growers and businesses overcame multiple challenges to keep feeding America and the world, including inflation that made energy and farm equipment more expensive, and the expense and hard work needed to keep our flocks safe from avian influenza. As a result, Delmarva continues to be a leader in the U.S. chicken industry.”
“As a family farmer, raising chicken is one of the most important things I do in my community,” said Mary Lou Brown, DCA president. “It’s heartening to know the more than 1,200 chicken growers like myself here on Delmarva make this much of an impact on our economy.”
Chicken companies also spent $187 million on capital improvements to processing plants, hatcheries and wastewater treatment systems in 2024, and invested $392 million in packaging and processing supplies. On farms, many growers invested in conservation practices to protect water quality, including vegetative environmental buffers, stormwater management and pollinator-friendly areas.
DCA, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance are partnering with chicken farmers to invest $2 million in cost-share programs to accelerate the adoption of sustainable and resilient chicken farming practices and improve riparian buffers, precision nutrient management, conservation drainage and litter management. The three-year effort is backed by a $997,327 grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation through its Chesapeake Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program, a partnership between NFWF and the Environmental Protection Agency. DCA, the state of Maryland, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance are contributing a combined $1 million in matching funds to the initiative, and DCA is working with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance to implement conservation measures.
