Kojo Quartey: The serious business of chicken feet
As a child growing up, we used to raise chicken, and the only parts of the chicken that were off limits were the intestines, bile and gall bladder; everything else, including the head and feet, was fair game. Would I buy chicken feet or have I ever bought chicken feet for consumption?
No. But if properly prepared, would I eat it? Yes. I hear it has great nutritional value and tastes like chicken. I now view chicken feet as an inferior product, which means as one’s income rises, they consume less of that product. But that is not the case in many parts of the world, especially in China and some other Southeast Asian countries. In many of these nations, chicken feet are a delicacy.
Now, what brings me to writing about chicken feet, you ask? Well, a few weeks ago, while I was researching the article I wrote on the Superbowl, I came across other articles stating that fans consume over 100,000 pounds of chicken wings on Superbowl Sunday alone! Also, in one of those articles was a sentence referencing the small part of the chicken wings we consume, which most of us do not even see as part of the wings — the “flappers” or sharp tip of the wings. Typically, that is not a part of the wing that we buy and consume. I am talking about real bone-in chicken wings here, not those “boneless wings,” which I liken more to chicken nuggets. Yes, I know they are different from nuggets. The wings we buy and consume are the drums and flat parts. So, what happens to the tips? The article stated that wing tips are exported to places like, China, Vietnam and Thailand. It is not thrown away. During the Superbowl in 2023, Americans consumed 1.45 billion chicken wings.
According to the National Chicken Council’s senior vice president of communications, Tom Super, “The vast majority of wings, especially those destined for restaurants, are disjointed, with the third joint, the thin part known as the wing tip or flapper, being exported to Asian countries and the meatier first and second joints being sold domestically.” By the way, if not discarded, some parts are “rendered” or used in dog and cat food, for example. Note that even chicken intestines are a delicacy in the Philippines.
Now, having gotten that bit of information, I wondered about other parts of the chicken that we typically do not consume here in the U.S., for example, the chicken feet. There is a whole international market for chicken feet and there have been near-wars about chicken feet. I have been unable to get any stats on flappers or wing tips shipped overseas, but the same is not true of chicken feet, which are also sold in some specialty and ethnic stores here in the U.S.
An article from Poultry World in 2021 based on data from the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, reports that chicken feet, or “paws,” also known as “Phoenix talons” are shipped in huge volumes to China annually. While these paws are considered “almost a waste product” here in the U.S., they are in high demand in China and other parts of Asia. In China, they are in such demand that they are often more expensive than chicken meat and can go for over $1 a pound. In 2020, paws exported to China totaled $460 million.
Now, that’s nothing to sneeze at. They actually suggest that if it were not for chicken wings, many poultry firms would now be defunct.
Despite the bird flu and trade bans, chicken feet accounted for more than 85 percent of all U.S. poultry exported to China in 2022. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2023), U.S. producers shipped nearly $6 billion in poultry meat and related products (excluding eggs) to over 130 countries in 2022.
U.S. chicken exports to China were slowed down by the avian flu, but the market is recovering. While chicken feet may be a waste product here in the U.S., it is not in many other parts of the world. What we take for granted is valued by someone else.
— Kojo Quartey, Ph.D., is president of Monroe County Community College and an economist. He can be reached at kquartey@monroeccc.edu.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Kojo Quartey: The serious business of chicken feet
