Some of Sussex County’s earliest chicken exports

The recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that China is resuming its imports of chicken came as welcome news to Delaware poultry farmers. Foreign imports account for millions of dollars’ worth of business for Sussex County.

This photograph in Bridgeville from February of 1931, made on a glass negative by Roydon L. Hammond, shows some of the earliest international export of Sussex County chickens. In this case, Record of Performance and State Supervised chickens were crated and sent off to Argentina in South America to assist with that nation’s fledgling poultry industry. The South American nation of Brazil is now the world’s largest exporter of chicken for human consumption.

Sussex County farmers produce more chicken for domestic and foreign markets than any other county in the U.S.