Delaware's chicken industry has humble roots - a single farmer, Cecile Steele, raised a flock of 500 chicks for meat instead of the 50 she'd ordered as egg layers in 1923. Her success sparked countless other entrepreneurs and innovators who followed in her footsteps. From that modest beginning, a major economic engine in our state has flourished.
New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the Delaware chicken community created $1.02 billion in value last year. That means all the Delaware chicken hatched, raised, and processed in 2017 sold for more than $1 billion as it left the shipping dock. One dollar out of every $30 of chicken processed in the U.S. is earned in Delaware.
Growing income from raising and producing chickens flows directly to the family farmers who, across Delmarva, earned $256 million in income in 2017. That rising income benefits chicken company employees, whose Delmarva-wide wages came to $752 million last year. That $1.02 billion of purchasing power, in the wallets of everyone who makes chicken possible, fills the cash registers of every business that farmers, chicken company employees, and their family members shop in.
Rising chicken income means more tax revenue for Delaware, too. When the chicken community's value grows, the prosperity of Delawareans grows with it, even if they aren't in the chicken business themselves.
Delaware's farm families are some of the most regulated farms in the country, and we realize regulations are necessary. We work with local and state government officials to ensure the health and well-being of the animals, the environment and our neighbors, while at the same time responsibly growing an economic engine all Delawareans can be proud of - and all Delawareans benefit from.
Bill Satterfield
Georgetown
Executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc.
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