The leg-quarter business is big and concentrated. So much so that a bad year for leg-quarter exports is a bad year for the industry. It would be easy amid all the past year's embargoes and trade disputes to overlook the fact that world exports of USAchicken leg quarters in 2002 reached a record high in metric tons. Over the 1997-2002 period, U.S. leg-quarter exports have risen from 564,978 metric tons to 1,191,192.7 metric tons. That's a 110.8 percent increase and represents quite a success in clearing the U.S. market of chicken dark meat. That record, however, is more one of necessity than virtue. In fact, leg quarter exports have been on a tortuous course during this period (see Leg Quarter Exports, 1998-2002, below), and the annual volume figures don't provide a complete picture.
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