5-7 news: Pilgrim's Pride posts Q1 loss, plans to reopen three plants

"While I am encouraged by the progress we have made in several areas of our business, our overall performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 was below our expectations," said Don Jackson, Pilgrim's Pride president and CEO.

The company said several factors contributed to the loss for the quarter, including: restructuring and reorganization costs; a delay in the addition of new further-processed volume which forced the company to sell commodity meat at lower prices; a loss of approximately $11 million related to grain hedges, of which $6 million was mark-to-market on open positions; and lower-than-anticipated market prices for dark meat. Jackson said the further-processed volume should be onboard before the end of June.