EU broiler prices eased for a second consecutive week in week 43 and now sit well below the record set in 2025, though still around 27% above their ten-year average, which elevated energy costs should keep them above.
Supply is the reason. EU production set a monthly record for every month from January to June 2026, the highest since at least 2009, and July was the second-highest July on record. Poland and Spain account for most of the increase, and Polish broiler chick hatchings in August ran around 140 million head, up 16.9% on the year. Seasonally softer autumn consumption leaves little room to absorb it.
Poland is where it gets complicated. Broiler chicken prices there have fallen to their lowest since December 2021 and now sit within 2% of their ten-year average. At the same time Polish production dropped 13.3% quarter on quarter, because disease restrictions cover regions accounting for more than half of national output. The product cannot move, which is also why prices are unlikely to keep falling while those measures stand.
Disease is building elsewhere. Newcastle Disease outbreaks in Europe reached 158 this year, the highest in two decades, with 27 broiler farms still affected in Spain and a fast-growing cluster in Bács-Kiskun in Hungary. Wild-bird avian influenza detections have risen as migration gets under way, and a further EU import ban on Brazil will trim supply.
Read the full global poultry market analysis here.
