Wholesale prices
How much does chicken breast cost wholesale?
Boneless skinless breast is quoted per pound off a case, and the two specs that decide the number are almost never discussed: whether it is portion-cut or random-weight, and how much retained water or marinade you are buying. Get both in writing and the vendor comparison becomes arithmetic.
What this page is and is not
We do not have wholesale quote data. Nobody publishes a national wholesale price for chicken breast that would mean anything on your invoice, and we are not going to invent one. The figure below is a retail-level US city average from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the same series behind our food cost index. Use it as a direction and a sanity check, never as a quote. The rest of this page is the part that is actually worth your time: how to read the quote you already have.
Where the tracked number sits
September 2026 · retail, US city average
$4.15
per lb
- 3 months
- −0.4%
- 12 months
- −1.2%
Your delivered price will not be this number. It will be a different number, in a different pack, at a different point in the chain, in your region — and that is fine, because the useful question is not does my price match a national average. It is did my price move the way the market moved. A quote that rose in a quarter when the tracked series fell −0.4% is a conversation you can have with evidence in your hand.
For what the last twelve months did to specific dishes, the chicken breast price page runs the per-plate arithmetic off this same series.
The packs you are actually quoted on
A quote arrives as a case price. Nothing is comparable until it is converted — to another vendor, to last quarter, or to the series above. The right-hand column is that conversion done at the retail-level average, so it is a reference point with the arithmetic shown, not a price anyone should expect to pay.
| Pack | In tracked units | At the retail-level average |
|---|---|---|
Case — 40 lb, IQF (individually quick frozen) The default. Frozen means you buy on your schedule rather than the delivery's, which on a volatile week is worth more than a few cents a pound. | 40 × lb | $166.12 |
Case — 4 × 10 lb, fresh Better texture, shorter clock. Only worth the premium if the volume turns it before it turns on you. | 40 × lb | $166.12 |
Portion-cut — fixed weight, case by count Costs more per pound and removes both trim loss and the labour of portioning. Compare it on plate cost plus labour, not on the invoice price. | — | not comparable |
What drives the spread
Four things separate any published average from the number on your invoice. Knowing which one a rep is moving is most of the skill.
Volume
Chicken is the highest-turn protein on most menus, so the volume step is usually available. The meaningful jump is from single cases to a standing weekly pallet order, which is a different conversation with the same rep.
Region
Proximity to a processor, and whether frozen product is arriving from further away than fresh. Frozen travels, so the regional spread on IQF is narrower than on fresh — one of the few places where the frozen option is the more predictable one.
Grade & spec
Retained water is the spec nobody reads. Air-chilled and water-chilled birds carry different amounts of water, and marinated or "enhanced" breast is sold with a stated solution percentage — that percentage is weight you are paying breast prices for. Then: fresh or IQF, portion-cut or random-weight, size band (the 6–8 oz case that arrives mostly at 8 oz costs you on every plate), and whether rib meat is attached.
Vendor
Broadline versus a protein specialist. The specialist will hold a size band more tightly, which on a portioned menu is worth more than the price difference — a drifting size band is a cost increase you cannot see on an invoice.
The public benchmark
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service publishes national and regional broiler and boneless-breast market reports weekly, alongside the daily poultry series: ams.usda.gov/market-news.
We name these rather than restate them. A market level quoted from memory is a fabricated statistic, and the point of a public benchmark is that you can go and read today's.
What to ask for
- Solution percentage, explicitly — "no solution added" or "contains up to X% solution". Two quotes with different answers are not comparable at any price.
- Size band and tolerance for portion-cut, or the size range for random-weight.
- Fresh or IQF, air-chilled or water-chilled, rib meat on or off, delivered price per pound.
How to tell whether your quote is reasonable
- 1Case ÷ case weight = $/lb. Then, if there is a solution percentage, work out what you are paying per pound of actual breast — a 15% solution at the same headline price is a 15% price rise hiding in a spec sheet.
- 2Price the portion-cut premium against labour and trim, not against the raw price. Breast trims to roughly 90–95% and loses a fifth to a quarter of its weight cooking; the chicken breast price page works that through on real dishes.
- 3Weigh a sample from every delivery if you buy random-weight against a portioned menu. Size drift is real, silent, and costs on every plate.
Red flags
- A quote that beats every other quote and does not mention solution percentage.
- Frozen product invoiced against a fresh line, or previously-frozen sold as fresh.
- A size band stated in the pitch and absent from the spec sheet.
Terms on this page
Yield percentage
The share of a purchased ingredient that survives trimming, peeling and cooking to reach the plate.
Prime cost
Total cost of goods sold plus total labor cost — the two numbers that decide whether a restaurant survives.
Edible portion vs. as-purchased
AP is what you paid the supplier; EP is what the usable part actually costs after loss.
A good quote still gets worse without anyone deciding to.
The negotiation is the easy part. What costs money is the eleven months afterwards, when the case weight drifts, the lean point changes, the slice count moves and every recipe built on the old number keeps quietly reporting the old cost. Marji reads the invoice, recosts every dish the ingredient touches, and tells you which menu price stopped working.
Start a free trial