Rare $2,500 Chicken Is ‘Lamborghini’ of Poultry

Rare $2,500 Chicken Is ‘Lamborghini’ of Poultry

Black is a common color for animals; gorillas are black, bears are black, there are breeds of dogs and cats that are black. But Ayam Cemani, an Indonesian chicken breed takes ‘black’ into an entirely different realm. Ayam Cemani's black color is not limited to its feathers , because the color is all over and even on the inside. The skin, beak, plume, tongue, legs, toe nails, even its meat, bones, and organs are black! Even bone marrow is black. Although their blood is not black, but it is very dark in color.

Now, would you spend much for this rare breed of chicken?

At Greenfire Farms in Florida, a breeder named Paul Bradshaw, sells chickens for $2,500 per chicken, that is $5,000 for a juvenile pair. Bradshaw says the rare Indonesian breed Ayam Cemani is “my most requested bird, ever.”

It remains to be seen if there's a mainstream market for the bird. He’s the first U.S. breeder and doesn’t expect to have chicks available until early 2014.

So why is this chicken costs so much? Dana Cowin, editor-in-chief of Food & Wine, answered this question.

"To be fair, it is an all black chicken," she says. "So it's very chic. Its feathers are black. Its organs are black. Its meat is black. So it's very special, it's a rare breed chicken."

The word ‘Ayam’ means ‘chicken’ in Indonesian, and ‘Cemani’ translates to ‘completely black’ in Javanese. The black coloring is the result of a genetic trait known as “fibromelanosis” and is also characteristic of Chinese Silkies, a black chicken treasured across China.

This chicken is beautiful, exotic and hard-to-get that's why collectors desire them. Greenfire Farms says it was able to legally import the Ayam Cemani despite a current USDA export ban on importing live chickens from Indonesia. Their website says the “friendly” chickens are renowned in Asia “for the mystical powers of their black meat.” It’s traditionally eaten as part of various rituals. So while they are relatively cheap in Indonesia, the delicacy won’t have a chance to catch on in the U.S. until the Cemani are more widely available.

According to Bradshaw, he expects that eventually the Cemani population will grow and the price will fall. Then the bird could be sold in specialty meat markets, especially Asian markets across the U.S.

The cream-colored eggs can be eaten too, Cowin says. If you bought this chicken with its current price tag, would you dare to slaughter and cook it? Nah, you won't.

"At $2,500 a pop, $5,000 for a pair, you're probably not gonna go eat that bird anytime soon," she notes. "The market is not large, but it's passionate. This guy [Paul Bradshaw] who has imported this breed...he has a higher demand for these chickens than any other chickens in his rare breed collection. So among the people who care... they do care a lot."

For comparisons sake: Cowin notes you can get 15 run-of-the-mill chicks sent to you for about $85. And other special breeds – like the Chocolate Wyandotte – sell for $149 for a dozen. So the Ayam Cemani definitely stands apart.

Cowin and her crew stumbled upon the $2,500 chicken as they assembled their latest issue of Food & Wine -- the September issue is a celebration of chicken.

"It's almost embarrassing to say that it's a chicken moment" but it is, says Cowin. The magazine details the most incredible juicy, crispy and fragrant things that chefs are doing with chicken across the country.

To be clear, there is an economic reason behind the current resurgence of chicken.

"The fact is that grain prices have dropped which means feeding chickens [is] less expensive so it is cheaper to buy a chicken today," says Cowin. "And beef and pork are becoming more expensive. So there is an economic underpinning but I am gonna have to go for flavor first."


http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/rare-2-500-chicken-lamborghini-poultry-163825389.html