Private label canned fruits and vegetables processor Seneca Foods said Thursday that the company’s earnings nearly tripled through its fiscal third quarter from a year earlier.

Seneca Foods said earnings for the nine months that ended Dec. 29 were $37.5 million, or $3.19 a share, well above the $13.4 million, or $1.10 a share, from a year earlier. Net sales rose 1.4 percent even as sales volume decreased slightly.

In the third quarter itself, earnings dipped slightly from a year ago, at $14.8 million, down from $18.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2012. Net sales in the quarter increased 1.3 percent, although the company said part of the increase could be attributed to stronger promotional activity and lower selling prices.

Seneca produces items under its own brands as well as private label, and produces canned and frozen vegetables sold by General Mills under the Green Giant label.