As we head up to Super Bowl 2013 on Sunday, Feb. 3, there is a concerns that fans favorite snack, chicken, may be getting harder to find, according to the National Chicken Council.
Super Bowl weekend is unquestionably the biggest time of the year for wings. According to the National Chicken Council's 2013 Wing Report, more than 1.23 billion wing portions will be consumed during Super Bowl weekend in 2013.
Wings are currently the highest priced portion of a chicken and cost $2.11 a pound in the Northeast, up 12 percent from last year.
"Chicken companies produced about 1 percent fewer birds last year, due in large part to record high corn and feed prices," Bill Roenigk, chief economist and market analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based National Chicken Council said in a release.
"Corn makes up more than two-thirds of chicken feed and corn prices hit an all-time high in 2012, due to two reasons: last summer's drought and pressure from a federal government requirement that mandates 40 percent of our corn crop be turned into fuel in the form of ethanol. Simply put, less corn equals higher feed costs, which means fewer birds produced."
Americans are serious about their chicken wings. Second only to Thanksgiving, Super Bowl weekend is the biggest eating day of the year, and chicken wings are the most popular dish.
To visualize just how much chicken wings that is, The National Chicken Council says if those 1.23 billion chicken wing segments were laid end to end, they would stretch between the San Francisco 49ers Candlestick Park and the Baltimore Ravens M&T Bank Stadium 27 times.
This year's Super Bowl sees the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens battle for the Lombardi Trophy. Watch all the action on CBS with pre-kick coverage begining at 6:00 p.m. ET and kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET, all on Feb. 3.
