Operating income for the first Quarter reported

The company also reported an adjusted EBITDA of $204.0 mill. (or a 10.1% margin), cash flow from operations of $61.5 mill., GNP integration is on track with additional synergies already identified increasing total annualized run-rate to $30 mill., up from $20 mill. before.

The completion of previously announced capital investments, including strategic projects in organic and NAE, are said to deliver better product mix to reduce impact of commodity markets, strengthen operational efficiencies as well as tailored customer needs, and improve margin profile.

"In-line with expectations, our Q1 results improved sequentially from Q4 driven by stronger results at our U.S. operations while Mexico continued to deliver solid performance despite less favorable FX impact on cost. Highlighting the diversity of the portfolio of bird sizes, small bird and tray-pack have remained strong during the period, while large bird deboning has rebounded from a weaker than expected January and continued to improve with stronger exports and increasing domestic demand. With summer grilling season nearing and a supportive export environment, we expect profits for our large birds to further increase, given the improved cutout. Our exposure to multiple bird sizes through our well-balanced portfolio will provide an opportunity for us to capture the improvement in performance across all bird segments," stated Bill Lovette, Chief Executive Officer of Pilgrim's.