It has been a truly challenging year for North America's second largest poultry producer. During this financial year Pilgrim's Pride has had to deal with avarian flu, rising feed prices, and, most disastrously, the largest ever meat recall in US history.

Therefore, it came as little surprise that the company announced a net loss of $3.2 million (euro 3.3m) for the fourth fiscal quarter ended September 28, 2002, a $16.1 million decrease compared to net income in the prior year's fourth fiscal quarter of $12.9 million.

The Company also announced net sales for the quarter were down to $639.8 million, a $1.5 million decrease compared to the $641.3 million for the same period last year. Share dividends were also well down on expectations.

For fiscal 2002, the Company reported net income of $14.3 million, a $26.8 million decrease when compared to the prior fiscal year's net income of $41.1 million. Net sales for fiscal 2002 were a record $2.5 billion, a 14.4% increase, compared to $2.2 billion for the same period last year, with the increase resulting primarily from the acquisition of WLR Foods, which was effective January 27, 2001.

Although the effects of this month's recall have not had any bearing on the last quarter's results, the company chose not to make any reference to it in its official release.

"Rising feed costs along with the lower prices realized in the U.S. for dark meat chicken products caused by the effects of the import ban by Russia last spring, along with the previously announced impact of avian influenza in our Eastern Division, were the primary causes of our fourth fiscal quarter of 2002 results being down compared to the prior year. The weakness in commodity prices occurring at a time when our feed costs were rising combined to give the negative results when compared to the prior year's quarter," stated David Van Hoose, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer for the Company.

Pilgrim's Pride currently employs more than 24,500 persons and operates processing and further processing plants, distribution centers, hatcheries and feed mills in throughout the US and Mexico. Products are sold to foodservice, retail and frozen entree customers.

A conference call to discuss the Company's annual and fourth quarter of fiscal 2002 financial results will be held at 10:00 a.m. CST (11:00 a.m. EST) on October 30, 2002. The call will also be webcast live on the Internet at this link . The webcast will be available for replay within two hours of the conclusion of the call.