Northern Ireland chicken processor Moy Park has reported a 7% increase in half-year earnings (EBITDA) to £33.5m (€39m) as sales volume growth and cost reductions more than offset lower sales prices. Despite what Moy Park termed “challenging market” conditions, earnings margins widened 50 basis points to a very healthy 9.2%.Overall, group revenue increased marginally (1.2%) to £365m (€420m), while pre-tax profits jumped 36% to almost £17m (€19m). Moy Park was also able to reduce its net debt position by more than £75m to sit at £138m (€159m), leaving the group quite lowly geared with a net debt to earnings ratio of just 1.16 times.