U.S. Can Crow About Success in Broiler Race : Poultry: In global game of chicken production there is a contest to see who is most efficient. The United States and Thailand are running beak to beak.

No country is ready to knock the United States from its roost as the world’s top poultry producer. But in the global game of chicken there is a beak-to-beak race to see who is the most efficient.

Efficiency can translate into profits for producers and lower prices for consumers. Efficiency also is a big factor in one country’s having an export advantage over another.

The world’s poultry trade is one of the many items under discussion in the current Uruguay Round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which is scheduled to conclude by the end of this year.

According to Agriculture Department analysts, the GATT talks--which are aimed at general liberalization of world trade--could lead to greater traffic in poultry meat and lower consumer prices in many countries.

Basically, the department’s Economic Research Service says in a recent report, efficient producers such as the United States, Thailand and Brazil would reap benefits from successful GATT negotiations.

“Poultry is the fastest growing source of meat, representing about 22% of all meat production in 1988,” the report said. “The countries with industrial market economies accounted for about 54% of total world poultry production and 59% of world exports in 1988.”

The five major poultry importers in 1988 were Japan, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union, Hong Kong and Iraq. The five biggest exporters were the United States, the European Economic Community, Brazil, Hungary and Thailand.

“Poultry’s relative share of total meat consumption after trade liberalization would probably continue to grow because costs of poultry production could continue to be lower than for other meats,” the report said.

The United States produced about 20.7 billion pounds of poultry in 1988, based on estimated ready-to-cook weight. That was almost double the output of 1970. Broilers make up most poultry.

In 1940, U.S. broilers--once called fryers--required more than 4 pounds of feed for each pound of live weight gain. Today, the ratio is about 2 to 1.

Moreover, the report said, improved genetic stock and management have reduced the time to “grow out” a broiler from 14 weeks in 1940 to six or seven weeks currently.

Consequently, based on 1986 figures, U.S. broiler producers are able to turn out ready-to-cook birds for an average cost of 29.9 cents per pound.

Given the great size of the overall U.S. chicken factory, that should rank American producers at the top of the heap for efficiency. Collectively, the No. 2 producer, including chickens consumed domestically and those exported, was the EEC, which produced 13 billion pounds in 1988.

The Soviet Union was third at 7.02 billion pounds, followed by China, 5.29 billion; Brazil, 4.4 billion; Japan, 3.24 billion; and France, the leading EEC producer, 3.16 billion.

Feed conversion rates and costs of production were not available to agency researchers for the EEC, although the 1986 cost of production of broilers in France was 34.8 cents per pound.

In the Soviet Union, the third-ranked broiler producer, it required 3.6 pounds of feed to grow 1 pound of broiler, compared with 5.3 pounds in 1965. No costs were shown. Also, it takes a Soviet chicken 66 to 77 days to grow enough to be eaten, more than 40% longer than the U.S. broiler.

“Much of the differential between Soviet producers and producers in other countries can probably be attributed to the low protein content of Soviet poultry feed, because most protein meal must be imported,” the report said.

But U.S. broiler efficiency is being challenged by some other countries. Thailand, a relative newcomer to broiler production, turns out birds at a cost of 29.9 cents per pound of ready-to-cook weight, matching the U.S. cost. Feed conversion also is at the U.S. rate of 2 pounds of feed for each pound of live weight.

New Zealand is producing broilers with 1.9 pounds of feed for each pound of growth, but its costs were reported at 33.6 cents per ready-to-cook pound.

The report showed that consumer broiler prices in the United States in November, 1988, averaged 85 cents per pound. Only Brazil was lower at 68 cents.

Others included in a selected list of prices for broiler meat in capital cities in U.S. dollars, included Australia, $1.69 per pound; Canada, $1.24; France, $2.22; Japan, $2.90, and Mexico, 93 cents.