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To: CDMQ who wrote (19175)	12/5/1998 10:36:00 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

O.T. - dark meat chicken prices. (In our house, everyone is usually fighting over who gets to eat the "dark" meat). December 5, 1998 U.S. Dark-Meat Chicken Prices Drop Filed at 11:11 a.m. EST By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- Economic troubles in Russia, where dark meat of the chicken is widely popular, are pushing down prices for drumsticks and thighs in U.S. supermarkets. So far, however, the plunging prices have failed to lure large numbers of health-conscious Americans away from their preferred lean chicken breasts. ''Until the Russian crisis began, Russia was a very good complementary market,'' said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Broiler Council. But now, he said, ''the importers in Russia are having trouble coming up with the dollars to pay for imports.'' Last year, Russia bought 925,000 tons of dark-meat chicken valued at more than $700 million. This year growers expected Russian buys of dark meat that would reach an estimated 1 million tons. But the country's financial collapse has brought its purchases to a near standstill. The result: Dropping dark meat prices for Americans. ''This has led to a real windfall for American consumers,'' Lobb said. In recent weeks, leg quarters have sold in some parts of the country for as low as 49 cents a pound, he said. At a local Safeway grocery store in Upper Marlboro, Md., a Washington suburb, leg quarters were selling last week at 99 cents a pound. Prices were similar at other Washington area stores, not so inexpensive as elsewhere but still significantly cheaper than the $1.50 a pound and more that people were paying for chicken breasts. ''We have definitely seen a drop in the price at the wholesale and retail level. Prices are about 28 percent down,'' Giant supermarket spokesman Barry Scher said Friday. He added that stores report more shoppers are taking advantage of the lower prices. ''I've noticed a big markdown in chicken prices,'' said Gaithersburg, Md., resident Nikki Cooper, who found a five-pound bag of leg quarters last week for less than a dollar a pound. ''I've always liked dark meat, but these prices make it even better.'' There was a time when Americans preferred dark meat, Lobb said. ''Thirty years ago the situation was just the opposite, and the companies could not sell all of the white meat,'' he said. In the time since, however, Americans have come to love chicken breasts, which are lower in fat and easier to cook. ''The hottest product has been the skinless boneless breast,'' Lobb said. For now, the chicken industry plans to wait out the Russian crisis by trying to develop quick and tasty dark-meat recipes in hopes of luring more U.S. sales. ''If we could find something that would do for thighs and drumsticks what Buffalo wings did for wings,'' Lobb said, ''we'd be in good shape.'' Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company