Mexico’s largest poultry processor Industrias Bachoco has posted strong sales and earnings for the third quarter of 2010, three months that are traditionally the slowest for the business.

Bachoco booked net income of MXN635m (US$51.1m) for the three months to the end of September. The company posted a net loss of MSN53m in the third quarter of 2009, although that was almost half the loss posted in the third quarter of 2008 when commodity costs weighed on results.

Bachoco’s operating income for the third quarter of 2010 reached MXN812m, against MXN35m a year earlier. Sales rose 12.2% to MXN6.3bn.

CEO Cristobal Mondragon said: “The third quarter of the year was traditionally the weakest quarter for our company, but this quarter it was quite different. We had a good balance between supply and demand in our chicken business line, which allowed us to capitalise our productivity and supply efforts and achieve stronger results during the third quarter.”