Let's Talk Turkey: U.S. Turkey Production and International Trade

From the Economics & Statistics Administration

U.S. Department of Commerce

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This year is the 150^th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday.  Today we are presenting some data tidbits on U.S. production and international trade in turkeys and turkey products – the main course of many Thanksgiving celebrations. (The wild turkey would also have been our national symbol if Benjamin Franklin had had his way).  While we hope you find these facts tasty, our main motive is to showcase the vast amounts of delectable and highly detailed data on production and international trade that our federal statistical agencies harvest and dish out.

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U.S. Domestic Turkey Production

Detailed data on production and prices for turkeys (and many other agricultural commodities) is available from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS):

• U.S. turkey farming yielded $5.4 billion industry in sales in 2012. 
• Turkey prices received by farmers peaked in 1948, at $4.46 per pound in 2012 dollars. In 2012 turkey went for $0.72 per pound. (Figure 1.)
•  The U.S. produced 253.5 million turkeys in 2012, weighing 7.5 billion pounds. 
• 13 states produced over 84% of our country's turkeys in 2012, with Minnesota alone producing over 18%, or 46 million turkeys. (Figure 2.) 
• Turkeys have more than doubled in weight since 1929, from an average of 13.2 pounds in 1929 to 29.8 pounds in 2012. (Figure 3.)  According to NASS, the extraordinary increase in bird size is a result of large increases in turkey industry productivity due to technological innovations in turkey breeding and specialization in turkey raising methods. 
• Farmers produced 24 pounds of turkey per person living in the U.S. in 2012 (and that's not adjusted for vegetarians!), up from under 2 pounds per person in 1929. 

U.S. International Trade in Turkey Products 

The Census Bureau [4] collects data on U.S. merchandise trade for more than 17,000 import and 9,000 export products by country of origin and destination and publishes many reports and data products.  Census trade data are also available from the Census Bureau's USA Trade Online and from the U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade Administration's TradeStats Express.

Exports

• $591 million worth of turkey and turkey products were exported in 2012, which is 11% of domestic turkey production in 2012.
• 57.8% of our turkey products exports go to Mexico and our next largest turkey market is China as of September 2013.  (Figure 5.)
• 87% of our turkey exports are frozen or chilled turkey cuts, with whole birds comprising 12%, and live birds 1%. (Figure 5.)

 Imports

• In 2012, the U.S. only imported turkey from two countries, Canada (99.8%) and the United Kingdom (.2%)
• Of the $26.5 million of turkey imported from Canada and the U.K., $23 million was in live birds.
• Our trade surplus in turkey products was $564.5 million in 2012.

For additional interesting statistics about Thanksgiving, see the Census Bureau's Facts for Features, Thanksgiving Day: Nov. 28, 2013.

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau