The chicken meat industry has experienced strong growth over the past half century. Over the past ten years it has grown from 330.5 million chickens (producing 466,500 tonnes of meat) in 1994/95; to 429 million chickens (producing 698,000 tonnes) in 2005/06.

A typical family farm would house 100,000 broiler chickens and produce a total of 550,000 birds a year in several batches. The average investment in each poultry farm is around million, including land value.

Meat chickens are grown out to an average liveweight of 2.55 kg. The average dressed weight of a neat chicken at the end of primary processing in 1.65 kg.

Per capita consumption of chicken meat in Australia is expected to reach 32.7 kg/person in 2004/05. By comparison, ABARE has forecast that Australians will consume on average 36.2 kg of beef and veal, 12.5 kg of lamb and mutton, and 22.1 kg of pig meat, per capita, in the same period. Consumption of other poultry meats (including turkey and duck) contributes a further 1.9 kg per capita to the diet of Australian consumers.

Most chicken meat produced in Australia is consumed locally. Less than 2% of chicken meat is exported. Exports of poultry meat are forecast to amount to 19,000 tonnes in 2004/05, with the majority of this being chicken meat. The values of these exports will be in the vicinity of million.

According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE - ("Australian Commodities 05.1 March quarter") the gross value of production (GVP) of the chicken meat industry is forecast to be .313 billion in 2004/05. However, the ACMF estimates the retail value of the industry to be in the vicinity of .5 billion.

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