Chiquita Brands International S.à.r.l., formerly known as United Fruit Company, is a Swiss company producing and distributing bananas and other produce. The company operates under subsidiary brand names, including the flagship Chiquita brand and Fresh Express salads. Chiquita is the leading distributor of bananas in the United States.[1][2]
Chiquita is the successor to the United Fruit Company. It was formerly controlled by American businessman Carl Lindner Jr., whose majority ownership of the company ended when Chiquita Brands International exited a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 19 March 2002. In 2003, the company acquired the German produce distribution company Atlanta AG. Fresh Express salads was purchased from Performance Food Group in 2005. Chiquita's former headquarters were located in Charlotte, North Carolina.[3]
History
Chiquita Brands International's history began in 1870,[5] when a ship's captain, named Lorenzo Dow Baker, purchased 160 bunches of bananas in Jamaica, and resold them in Jersey City, eleven days later. In 1873, Central American railroad developer Minor C. Keith began to experiment with banana production in Costa Rica. Later, he planted bananas alongside a Costa Rican railroad track to provide revenue for the railroad.[6] In 1878, Baker partnered with Andrew Preston to form the Boston Fruit Company.[7]
United Fruit Company was founded in 1899, when the Boston Fruit Company and various fruit exporting concerns controlled by Keith merged.[8] In 1903, United Fruit Company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the first company to use refrigeration during open sea transport. In the same year, a US-funded railroad was built in
Operations
Chiquita Brands International operates in 70 countries and employs approximately 20,000 people as of 2018. The company sells a variety of fresh produce, including bananas, ready-made salads, and health foods.[39] The company's Fresh Express brand has approximately $1 billion of annual sales and a 40% market share in the United States.[6]
On 29 November 2011, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee approved $22 million in incentives for Chiquita to move its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. The same day, Chiquita officially announced their move to the city, with the new headquarters residing in the NASCAR Plaza tower. Research and development was also moved to the Charlotte area. In addition to the incentives, the company cited the growing airport as a reason for the move.[3][40] According to the company's 2012 annual report, the company was aiming to "transform [itself] into a high-volume, low-cost operator" and to "minimize investments outside of [its] core product offerings".[3]
Logo
The company mascot "Miss Chiquita", now Chiquita Banana, was created in 1944 by Dik Browne, who is best known for drawing the popular comic strips Hi and Lois and Hägar the Horrible. Miss Chiquita started as an animated banana with a woman's dress and legs in the manner of Carmen Miranda. Vocalist Patti Clayton was the original 1944 voice of Miss Chiquita, followed by Elsa Miranda, June Valli and Monica Lewis. Advertisements featured the trademark banana character wearing a fruit hat. The banana with a fruit hat was changed into a woman in 1987. A new Miss Chiquita design was unveiled in 1998.[6] Peel-off stickers with the logo started being placed on bananas in 1963. They are still placed by hand today to avoid bruising the fruit.[45]
A commercial in 1947, with a theme song in English ended with the lyrics "si, si" emphasizing for consumers the origin of the bananas as Latin America. Another commercial featured a man of Latin descent with exaggerated stereotypical features. As times changed throughout the 1960s, so did the iconography and publications of Chiquita and their produce, of bananas.[46]
Criticism
Monopolistic practices
In 1976, the European Commission held that United Brands had been abusing a dominant market position, contrary to Article 86 of the EEC Treaty; in particular, by imposing unfair conditions on its customers, by refusing to supply certain customers, and by charging dissimilar prices for equivalent transactions. In 1978, the commission's decision was upheld by the European Court of Justice.[47]
Cincinnati Enquirer charges
On 3 May 1998, The Cincinnati Enquirer published an eighteen-page section, "Chiquita Secrets Revealed" by investigative reporters Michael Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter. The section accused the company of mistreating workers on its Central American plantations, polluting the environment, allowing cocaine to be brought to Borneo on its ships, bribing foreign officials, evading foreign nations' laws on land ownership, forcibly preventing its workers from unionizing, and a host of other misdeeds.[48]
In popular culture
- Gabriel García Márquez alludes to the Banana Massacre in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by describing a military suppression that resulted in the death of 3,000 plantation workers in the fictional town of Macondo. While García Márquez has stated that the deaths in his novel are potential overestimations, the actual number of deaths has never been confirmed. Estimates gathered from oral histories to primary sources vary widely, from 47 to upwards of 1,000 casualties.[85]
- The mission patch for the sixth flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket was based on the Chiquita logo,[86] and the "payload" for this mission was a Chiquita banana.[87] The company has also teased a future collaboration with SpaceX.[88]
See also
- Grand Nain
- Paramilitarism in Colombia
- Union of Banana Exporting Countries
- United Fruit Company
- 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
Further reading
- Mike Gallagher & Cameron McWhirter, "Chiquita Secrets Revealed," Cincinnati Enquirer, 3 May 1998.
- "The Business and Human Rights Management Report—Chiquita Brands International", Ethical Corporate Magazine, Nov. 2004.
- "The Importance of Corporate Responsibility", Economist Intelligence Unit, January 2005.
- "Chiquita Brands: A Turnaround That Is Here to Stay", Winslow Environmental News, January 2004.
- "The banana giant that found its gentle side", Financial Times, December 2002
- '"Chiquita Wins Raves for Outstanding Sustainability Reporting", Greenbiz.com, 3 April 2003
- Media
External links
References
- The Problem With Banans Banana Link, retrieved 2024-09-30^
- "The Changing Role of Multinational Companies in the Global Banana Trade". FAO. Rome. 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2024.^
- Ely Portillo. Chiquita relocating headquarters to Charlotte The Charlotte Observer, 2011-11-30, retrieved 30 November 2011