The growing popularity of chicken wings among American football watchers has helped Sanderson Farms bounce back to first-quarter profit more strongly than Wall Street had expected.

Jumbo chicken wings have become the "bright spot" of the poultry market, with prices averaging $1.57 a pound in the November-to-January period, up 36% on a year before, the poultry group said.

The rise reflected "strong seasonal demand during the football season", which, according to University of Missouri research, has driven prices of chicken wings above those of breast meat, which have historically been 2-3 times as expensive.

Breast meat prices rose by only 6.2% in the quarter.

At least one US restaurant chain, Buffalo Wild Wings, has based its business model on serving chicken wings to sports fans.

Share reaction 

The price improvements helped Sanderson raise revenues by 8.0% to $420.1bn for the period.

And, with corn prices lowering the group's costs, earnings came in at $15.8m, compared with a $6.75m loss a year before.

The result, equivalent to $0.75 a share, beat Wall Street forecasts of a $0.64-a-share figure.

"We are pleased with the start to fiscal 2010 and are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead," Joe Sanderson, the group's chairman and chief executive, said.

However, Sanderson Farms shares, which hit a five-year high on Monday in anticipation of strong results, closed down 1.5% to $50.27 in New York.

'Favourable balance' 

The poultry industry, which has been sapped by years of overproduction, had reached a "more favourable balance of supply and demand levels", Mr Sanderson added, stating the numbers of eggs reserved for meat, and placements of breeder hens was "in check".

The comments came as Fitch, the credit rating agency, warned of the risk to poultry groups of ramping up production too quickly in response to the economic revival.