New figures Monday from the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation show the bottom has dropped out of the price for poultry.
Boneless chicken breasts which were selling for $3.24 a pound a year ago and spiked three months ago at $4.36 have now dropped to $2.48. But the price of eggs, which had finally began dropping from high last year, is beginning to inch back up again, from $1.69 a dozen three months ago to $2.20 now.
So what's going on?
Farm Bureau spokeswoman Julie Murphree said that, at least as far as the birds themselves, it appears that the supplies which were decimated during the avian flu outbreak are finally back to where they were before. Millions of birds had to be destroyed.
So why hasn't the price of eggs followed suit?
"A chicken that we raise for meat is completely different than a hen that we raise for laying eggs," Murphree said. "It's two completely different commodity markets. And that's why they're probably never going to be in parallel."
The cost of the 16 items that the Farm Bureau typically surveys is down over last year. The $48.72 price tag is the lowest it's been since the middle of 2013. Murphree said it's a simple question of supply and demand.
The global market, China, Russia, India, their demand in certain ag commodities continues to be soft and our supply is pretty robust. That's why there's an across the board this decrease in food prices.
The quarterly survey is based on what Farm Bureau shoppers find at their local markets around the state, including any special sales.