Yahoo Finance's Karina Mitchell discusses how the Russia-Ukraine war is affecting meat buyers and chicken prices in Brazil.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We're going to move on to something else where we're seeing prices go higher, because the fallout from the war in Ukraine, of course, we've seen oil, gas, other energy commodities. Now we're seeing it affect something that's a staple on many dinner tables. With more, Karina Mitchell is here with us to explain. We're talking chicken here, I believe, Karina.

KARINA MITCHELL: Exactly, specifically, we're talking chicken from Brazil. Brazil happens to be the largest exporter of the meat in the world. And due to the war in Ukraine, prices are soaring. So why is that? Well, it's because Ukraine happens to be the sixth largest exporter of chicken. And because of the conflict that's going on there, shipments are being roiled. Farmers are being impacted. So meat buyers are looking elsewhere to supply that meat that they're looking for, specifically Brazil.

According to one industry group, that's caused certain cuts to rise by as much as 10% just over the last week. And that's going to hit consumers where it really hurts, right, in their pockets, because already, they're dealing with multiyear highs when it comes to inflation that's sky high, causing sticker shock in the grocery stores.

Now Ukraine actually vies with Brazil to sell breast meat into the EU, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. In fact, it shipped 450,000 tons to those areas last year. So Ukraine is going to take a hit, at least in the short-term. And if it goes on for a prolonged amount of time, this conflict, all bets are off. But for Brazilian exporters, it's actually been a good deal because it's helped them offset some of the soaring commodity prices, right? The grain prices that they use to sort of feed these chickens.

In fact, interesting story is that last year, chickens in Brazil actually got skinnier. They got thinner because of the soaring cost of corn. So farmers just started feeding them less. All of that now obviously exacerbated as soft commodities are going through the roof, guys.

BRIAN SOZZI: Karina, what's the impact here in the US?

KARINA MITCHELL: So we have to go back to Ukraine again because known as the breadbasket of Europe, right? So really fertile soil. It happens to be one of the largest producers of organic oilseed and grain in the world. And that happens to be exactly the grain that is consumed by American chickens. Now most of Ukraine's agricultural products are exported to Africa and Europe. But a certain amount of that comes to the US to feed these organic chickens.