(Adds details)
Nov 2 (Reuters) - Canadian meat processor Maple Leaf Foods Inc MFI.TO on Wednesday the reported a 70.4 percent jump in quarterly profit as lower costs and higher prices boosted earnings at its prepared meats business.
Maple Leaf said adjusted operating earnings in its meat products unit, the company's primary source of income, more than doubled to C$65.93 million ($49.35 million) in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. company's net earnings rose to C$31.83 million, or 23 Canadian cents per share, from C$18.68 million, or 13 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.
Maple Leaf recently completed a program started in 2010 to boost earnings by shutting some plants and modernizing others.
On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf earned 32 Canadian cents per share, in line with the average analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total sales for Canada's biggest pork processor rose 4.1 percent to C$852.1 million, beating analysts' average estimate of C$843 million. ($1 = 1.3359 Canadian dollars)