Credit card banks. Chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Manufacturing. These are the businesses that dominate the landscape--and make the headlines--in Delaware. But, the impact of agriculture on the Delaware economy also is vast, and nothing illustrates this better than the poultry industry:
- In 2002, Delaware growers produced 257.4 million broiler/roaster chickens. That's 1.54 billion pounds of chicken.
- Production increases every year. Ten years ago, just 1.3 billion pounds of chicken was produced in Delaware annually.
- Pounds and pounds of chicken translate into plenty of dollars. The total value of birds raised here last year was $494.2 million....not exactly chicken scratch!
Sussex County is the No.1 broiler-producing county in the nation. As such, the poultry industry has a particularly powerful impact on that county's economy. The numbers speak for themselves:
All those clucks mean big bucks
- 6,330 full-time poultry jobs in Sussex County, compared with 1,500 full-time positions in the hospitality and tourism field. These poultry jobs encompass a wide range of areas and interests, including flock supervisors, marketing specialists, researchers, sales representatives and administrative professionals.
- 3,800 jobs working directly in Sussex's four poultry processing plants.
- For every plant job, a "ripple effect" of 7.2 jobs created outside the poultry industry. These jobs include retail sales positions, food service workers, schoolteachers and health-care workers-- positions vital to support the needs of poultry workers and their families. This means 27,000 non-poultry jobs created thanks to the poultry business.
