LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — It’s in the name: the bread and butter of Frisco’s Chicken in Lancaster is costing a pretty penny these days.
“Last week we were seeing a daily increase of three to four cents per pound of chicken,” said Francisco Gomez De La Torre, owner of Frisco’s Chicken.
The sudden price hikes stem from the recent outbreak of avian flu, which has affected farms in more than 30 states so far.
Frisco’s specializes in Peruvian chicken and goes through more than 10,000 pounds of meat every month.
“You do the math – it’s a significant amount,” said Gomez De La Torre.
While the restaurant was recently forced to raise prices due to inflation, Gomez De La Torre doesn’t want to do it again.
He is trying to cut costs elsewhere to keep the burden off his customers.
“We look for other ways to save on product and supplies. It’s a constant battle, really,” he explained.
Over at the Shady Maple complex in East Earl Township, managers say they haven’t felt the increase in poultry prices yet. However, eggs are a different story.
They get eggs from several local farms, some of which have had flocks infected by the flu.
“This by far has been the biggest spike we’ve seen, where costs have gone up as much as a dollar a dozen in one week,” said Jim Ellis, assistant store manager at Shady Maple Farm Market.
It’s forced the business to bump up egg prices at its farm market but so far, customers of the Shady Maple Smorgasboard have been spared.
“We haven’t raised our prices over there so definitely we’re holding steady with pricing for the smorgasboard but it’s just sometimes made it a little bit more difficult to source,” explained Ellis.
And while Frisco’s owners do expect prices to normalize by summer, they believe things might get worse before they get better.
“We expect prices going even higher but by the summer we should reach a point where things go back to normal, hopefully,” said Gomez De La Torre.