Chiquita Brands International Sàrl (), formerly known as Chiquita Brands International Inc. and United Fruit Co., is a Swiss-domiciled American producer and distributor of

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

s and other

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fresh and g ...

. The company operates under a number of

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

brand names, including the flagship Chiquita brand and Fresh Express salads. Chiquita is the leading distributor of bananas in the United States. Chiquita is the successor to the United Fruit Company. It was formerly controlled by American businessman Carl H. 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 Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 li ...

. Fresh Express salads was purchased from Performance Food Group in 2005. Chiquita's former headquarters were located in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. On 10 March 2014, Chiquita Brands International Inc. and Fyffes plc announced that the Boards of Directors of both companies unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Chiquita would combine with Fyffes, in a stock-for-stock transaction that was expected to result in Chiquita shareholders owning approximately 50.7% of ChiquitaFyffes and Fyffes shareholders owning approximately 49.3% of the proposed ChiquitaFyffes, on a fully diluted basis. The agreement would have created the largest banana producer in the world and would have been domiciled in Ireland. An intervening offer by Brazilian companies

Cutrale Sucocitrico Cutrale is a Brazilian company that produces oranges, orange juice, and orange by-products. It is based in Araraquara, São Paulo. The company was founded in 1967 by José Cutrale Jr. and is controlled by the Cutrale family. Cutrale i ...

and

Safra Group The J. Safra Group is an international network of companies controlled by the Safra family, comprising banking and financial institutions and industrial operations. It is present in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, A ...

of $611 million in August 2014 was rejected by Chiquita, with the company saying it would continue with its merger with Fyffes. On 24 October, Chiquita announced that the shareholders at a Company Special Meeting had rejected the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

with Fyffes. Instead the Cutrale-Safra acquisition offer was then accepted by the shareholders.

History

Chiquita Brands International's history began in 1870 when ship's captain Lorenzo Dow Baker purchased 160 bunches of bananas in Jamaica and resold them in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Minor C. Keith Minor Cooper Keith (19 January 1848 – 14 June 1929) was an American businessman whose railroad, commercial agriculture, and cargo liner enterprises had a major impact on the national economies of the Central American countries, as well as on th ...

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. In 1878, Baker partnered with Andrew Preston to form the Boston Fruit Company. United Fruit Company was founded in 1899 when the Boston Fruit Company and various fruit exporting concerns controlled by Keith merged. 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 1928, workers went on strike in protest against poor pay and working conditions in the company plantations Ciénaga (

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

). The company lobbied U.S. government forces to assist with repressing the outbreak; however, the Colombian government opted to quell the strike on its own, sending military forces into the town of Ciénaga, where the strikers had gathered, on 6 December. The repression resulted in the deaths of scores of plantation workers and their families. This episode is known in the history of Colombia as the Masacre de las Bananeras ( Banana massacre). Gabriel García Márquez alludes to the event 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. By 1930, the company's fleet had grown to 95 ships. In 1944, the company premiered the "Chiquita Banana" advertising jingle, which extolled the virtues of the fruit as well as when to eat them and how to store them. The song, which had an infectious calypso beat, began with the words "I'm Chiquita Banana, and I've come to say." The brand name Chiquita was registered as a trademark in 1947. In 1952, the government of Guatemala began expropriating unused United Fruit Company land to landless peasants. The company responded by intensively lobbying the U.S. government to intervene and mounting a misinformation campaign to portray the Guatemalan government as

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. In 1954, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency deposed the government of Guatemala, elected in 1950, and installed a pro-business military dictatorship. By 1955, United Fruit Company was processing 2.7 billion pounds (1.2 billion kilograms) of fruit a year. In 1966, the company expanded into Europe. Eli Black came in 1968 and was made chairman, president, and CEO. In 1970, the company merged with

AMK Corporation AMK may refer to: * AMK (band), an indie rock band from Hong Kong * ''AMK'', a Turkish sports newspaper published by the Sözcü group *AMK Baru, a political coalition in Malaysia *AMK Ranch, a guest ranch in Wyoming *Ammattikorkeakoulu, a type of ...

and changed its name to United Brands Company.The United Nations Library on Transnational Corporations, Volume 15, Transnational Corporations: Market Structure and Industrial Performance
editors Claudio R. Frischtak and Richard S. Newfarmer, general editor John H. Dunning, London and New York: Routledge Publishing (published on behalf of the United Nations), 1994.Encyclopedia of White-Collar & Corporate Crime
edited by

Lawrence M. Salinger Lawrence M. Salinger (January 7, 1958 in Bono — November 23, 2013 in Jonesboro) was a professor of criminology and sociology at Arkansas State University. His research interests in criminology focused on violent victimization and organizational ...

, PhD, Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.A., London, UK, New Delhi, India: Sage Publications, 2005. Black took a controlling interest by outbidding two other conglomerates,

Zapata Corporation HRG Group, Inc., formerly Harbinger Group Inc. and Zapata Corporation, is a holding company based in Rochester, New York, having originated from an oil company started by a group including future U.S. president George H. W. Bush. In 2009, it w ...

and

Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engines. ...

. After the suicide of Black in 1975, the company was acquired by

Seymour Milstein Seymour Milstein (July 21, 1920 – October 2, 2001) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. Early life and education Milstein was born to Jewish familyPaul Milstein. In 1980, Chiquita was an official sponsor of the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

. In 1984, Cincinnati investor

Carl Lindner, Jr. Carl Henry Lindner Jr. (April 22, 1919 – October 17, 2011) was an American businessman from Norwood, Ohio, a member of the Lindner family, and one of the world's richest people. According to the 2006 issue of ''Forbes''s 400 list, Lindner was r ...

became the controlling investor in United Brands. In 1990, the company renamed itself Chiquita Brands International, as it undertook major investments in Costa Rica. However, the company began to see a decline in Honduran operations during the first half of 1990. As a result, Chiquita initiated the "Banana Wars" with rival company Fyffes over the limited banana supply. Chiquita began illegally seizing and destroying Fyffes' shipments, as well as bribing judges to validate detention orders on Fyffes' ships. This culminated in the destruction of ten million dollars worth of produce. Fyffes manager

Ernst Otto Stalinski Ernst Otto Stalinski (1944–2005) was a German humanist and entrepreneur. His involvement in a variety of agricultural enterprises led him to be a participant in the struggle between banana exporters Chiquita and Fyffes, dubbed the Banana Wars, in ...

alleged that Chiquita used a falsified arrest warrant in a kidnapping attempt, and he filed suit several times. In 1993, the company was hit by European tariffs on the import of Latin American bananas. In 1994, some Chiquita farms were certified by the Rainforest Alliance's Better Banana Project as being

environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...

. In 1995, the company sold the John Morrell meat business that was part of the original AMK Corporation. In 1998, the world's largest banana processing facility debuted in Costa Rica. In 2001, the EU dismantled their banana import policy that favored European companies. This ended any ongoing banana disputes.

Restructuring

In November 2001, Chiquita filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to restructure the company. It emerged from the bankruptcy on 19 March 2002, ending Cincinnati businessman Carl H. Lindner, Jr.'s control of the company. Also in 2002, Chiquita joined the Ethical Trading Initiative and was named as a top "green stock" by ''The Progressive Investor''. In 2003, Chiquita acquired the German produce distribution company,

. It also sold its processed foods division to Seneca Foods that year. In 2004, 100% of Chiquita farms were certified compliant with the SA8000 labor standard and the company earned the "Corporate Citizen of the Americas Award" from a Honduran charity. Fresh Express salads was purchased from Performance Food Group in 2005.

Acquisition

In March 2014, Chiquita Brands International and Fyffes announced that their boards of directors had unanimously approved a merger agreement. In the stock-for-stock transaction, former Chiquita shareholders will own approximately 50.7% of the new company, ChiquitaFyffes, while Fyffes shareholders will own 49.3% of the new company. The all-stock purchase was valued at US$526 million. The agreement would have created the largest banana company in the world with projected annual revenues of US$4.6 billion and have been domiciled in Ireland but be listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. Chiquita's CEO Ed Lonergan would have served as Chairman and Fyffes Executive Chairman David McCann would have become the CEO of the proposed entity. Lonergan called this a "milestone transaction" and that "the combined company will also be able to provide customers with a more diverse product mix and choice;" while McCann added that both companies will benefit from their "joint expertise, complementary assets and geographic coverage to develop a business". According to Chiquita, the deal will "provide substantial operational efficiencies and cost savings". The combined company will have tax savings from being domiciled in Ireland, similar to the 2013 acquisition by US drug-maker

Perrigo Perrigo Company plc is an American Irish–registered manufacturer of private label over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, and while 70% of Perrigo's net sales are from the U.S. healthcare system, Perrigo is legally headquartered in Ireland for tax ...

of Irish company Élan. The deal is a

corporate inversion A tax inversion or corporate tax inversion is a form of tax avoidance where a corporation restructures so that the current parent is replaced by a foreign parent, and the original parent company becomes a subsidiary of the foreign parent, thus mov ...

, as the takeover company (Chiquita, United States), is relocating its domicile to that of purchased company (Fyffes, Ireland). A $611 million takeover offer by Cutrale of Brazil and Safra group in August 2014 was rejected outright by Chiquita, with the company refusing to meet with the bidders to discuss the offer. Chiquita said it was pressing on with its merger with Fyffes. However, shortly after Chiquita shareholders rejected the Fyffes merger the Cutrale-Safra offer of $14.50 per share was accepted. Yet the North Carolina Economic Development board asserted that if the headquarters was moved away, the company would be due to return N.C. and local incentive money. Former Charlotte City Council member John Lassiter, who heads the board, said the new owners would inherit Chiquita's responsibilities under a 2011 deal that brought the company to the city. The agreement stipulates that it received more than $23 million in incentives from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for moving its headquarters and hundreds of high-paying jobs from Cincinnati and if it moved again within 10 years it must repay the " clawback" provision. Lassiter said of the matter: "It’s not a question of opinion. It’s 'What does the agreement say?’ I would expect both the city (of Charlotte) to impress its position (on the new owners) and for the (new ownership) to follow expectations under its provisions of the agreement."

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. The company's Fresh Express brand has approximately $1 billion of annual sales and a 40% market share in the United States. On 29 November 2011, the

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Economic Investment Committee approved $22 million in incentives for Chiquita to move its headquarters to

. 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 An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

as a reason for the move. According to the company's 2012 annual report, the company was aiming to "transform tselfinto a high-volume, low-cost operator" and to "minimize investments outside of tscore product offerings". By 2019, the company's main offices left the United States and relocated to Switzerland.

Logo

The company mascot "Miss Chiquita", now Chiquita Banana, was created in 1944 by

Dik Browne Richard Arthur Allan Browne (August 11, 1917 – June 4, 1989) was an American cartoonist, best known for writing and drawing ''Hägar the Horrible'' and ''Hi and Lois''. Biography Browne attended Cooper Union and got his start at the ''New York ...

, who is best known for drawing the popular

comic strips A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

'' Hi and Lois'' and '' Hägar the Horrible''. Miss Chiquita started as an animated banana with a woman's dress and legs. Vocalist

Patti Clayton Patti Clayton (February 28, 1924 in Detroit – December 11, 2003) was an American 20th century pop singer. Clayton was the original voice of Miss Chiquita, the Chiquita banana singer. In 1944, bananas were an exotic fruit in America. The Chiqui ...

was the original 1944 voice of Miss Chiquita, followed by

Elsa Miranda Elsa M. Miranda (14 February 1922 – 27 April 2007) was a noted Puerto Rican singer who was featured on radio and television in the United States during the Golden Age of Radio in the 1940s. As a naturalized Argentinian, she was also active as ...

, June Valli and Monica Lewis. Advertisements featured the trademark banana character wearing a

fruit hat A fruit hat is a festive and colorful hat type popularized by Carmen Miranda and associated with warm locales. This type of hat has been worn by fashionistas, in films, by comic strip characters, and for Halloween. The fruit used tends to sit on ...

. The banana with a fruit hat was changed into a woman in 1987. A new Miss Chiquita design was unveiled in 1998. 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. 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.

Criticism

Monopolistic practices

In 1976, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

held that United Brands had been abusing a dominant market position, contrary to Article 86 of the

EEC Treaty The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was signe ...

; 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 The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...

''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 Cameron may refer to: People * Clan Cameron, a Scottish clan * Cameron (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Cameron (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) ;Mononym * Cam'ron (born 197 ...

. The section accused the company of mistreating workers on its Central American

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

, polluting the environment, allowing

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

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. Chiquita denied all the allegations, and sued after it was revealed that Gallagher had repeatedly hacked into Chiquita's

voicemail A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...

system. A special prosecutor was appointed to investigate, because the elected prosecutor at the time had ties to

Gallagher had claimed to have obtained over 2,000 voicemails from a Chiquita executive, but in truth he had obtained them by hacking into Chiquita's voicemail system as often as 35 times a day. He had continued hacking into the system despite being explicitly directed not to do so by editors and lawyers. According to McWhirter, he also refused to give straight answers about his source to editors and outside lawyers–facts that aroused the suspicions of McWhirter and other reporters. Six weeks after the stories ran, Gannett reached a settlement with Chiquita, averting a lawsuit. Under the terms of the settlement, on 28 June 1998, the ''Enquirer'' retracted the entire series of stories and published a front-page apology saying it had "become convinced that he publishedaccusations and conclusions are untrue and created a false and misleading impression of Chiquita's business practices". The ''Enquirer'' also agreed to pay a multi-million- dollar settlement. The exact amount was not disclosed, but Chiquita's annual report mentions "a cash settlement in excess of $10 million". Gallagher was fired and prosecuted and the paper's editor, Lawrence K. Beaupre, was transferred to the Gannett's headquarters amid allegations that he ignored the paper's usual procedures on fact-checking. In an article examining the Chiquita series, Salon.com said the "Chiquita Secrets Revealed" series "presents a damning, carefully documented array of charges, most of them 'untainted' by those purloined executive voice mails."

Payments to foreign terrorist groups

In the 1990s and early 2000s, faced with an unstable political situation in Colombia, Chiquita and several other corporations including the Dole Food Company, Fresh Del Monte Produce and

Hyundai Motor Corporation Hyundai Motor Company, often abbreviated to Hyundai Motors ( ) and commonly known as Hyundai (, ; ), is a South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and founded in 1967. Currently, the company o ...

made payments to paramilitary organizations in the country, most notably the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Chiquita paid the AUC $1.7 million in a ten-year period. Although official accounts from the company state they only made these payments as the AUC was extorting payments from Chiquita in order to ensure their security,, these claims are disputed as Chiquita also allowed AUC to use their loading facilities to transport AK-47s. Indeed, the Chiquita's United States counsel had warned them against using this extortion defense in cases where the company benefitted from these payments, and the company's lawyer reportedly told them to stop making the payments. Chiquita's dealings with AUC continued even after it was officially designated as a terrorist organization in the United States. Although the company eventually voluntarily disclosed their involvement with AUC to the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

, they still sent over $300,000 to the organization even after the Justice Department instructed them to halt all payments. On 14 March 2007, Chiquita Brands was fined $25 million as part of a settlement with the

United States Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

for having ties to Colombian paramilitary groups. According to court documents, between 1997 and 2004, officers of a Chiquita subsidiary paid approximately $1.7 million to the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), in exchange for local employee protection in Colombia's volatile banana harvesting zone. Similar payments were also made to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as well as the National Liberation Army (ELN) from 1989 to 1997, both left-wing organizations.Michael Evans
'Para-politics' Goes Bananas
''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', 4 April 2007Matt Apuzzo,

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

writer
Chiquita to Pay $25M Fine in Terror Case
, ''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

'', 15 March 2007 All three of these groups are on the U.S. State Department's list of

Foreign Terrorist Organizations Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) is a designation for non-United States-based organizations deemed by the United States Secretary of State, in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (INA), to be involved ...

. Chiquita sued to prevent the United States government from releasing files about their illegal payments to Colombian left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups. On 7 December 2007, the 29th Specialized District Attorney's Office in Medellín, Colombia subpoenaed the Chiquita board to answer questions "concerning charges for conspiracy to commit an aggravated crime and financing illegal armed groups". Nine board members named in the subpoena allegedly personally knew of the illegal operations. One executive for the company penned a note which proclaimed that the payments were the "cost of doing business in Colombia" and also noted the "need to keep this very confidential – people can get killed." In 2013 and 2014, Chiquita spent $780,000 lobbying against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, hiring lobbyists from Covington and Burling, a high-powered

white shoe law firm A white-shoe firm is an American term used to describe prestigious professional services firms that have traditionally been associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from Ivy League colleges. The term is most often used to describe leadi ...

. On 24 July 2014, a US appeals court threw out a lawsuit against Chiquita by 4,000 Colombians alleging that the corporation was aiding the right-wing paramilitary group responsible for the deaths of family members. The court ruled 2-1 that US federal courts have no jurisdiction over Colombian claims. In 2016, Judge

Kenneth Marra Kenneth Anthony Marra (born August 1, 1951) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Education and career Marra was born in 1951 in Queens, New York. He graduated from th ...

of the

Southern District of Florida The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (in case citations, S.D. Fla. or S.D. Fl.) is the federal United States district court with territorial jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida.. Appea ...

ruled in favor of allowing Colombians to sue former Chiquita Brand International executives for the company's funding of the outlawed right-wing paramilitary organization that murdered their family members. He stated in his decision that “'profits took priority over basic human welfare' in the banana company executives' decision to finance the illegal death squads, despite knowing that this would advance the paramilitaries' murderous campaign." In February 2018, an agreement between Chiquita and the families of the victims had been reached. Information about who was behind the Chiquita payments to terrorist groups was made available by the

National Security Archive The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy. The Nat ...

, a nongovernmental research organization, in a series of document releases related to Chiquita's operations. In 2018, Colombia's Office of the Attorney General filed charges against 13 Chiquita Brands International executives and administrators after tracing payments made by a local Chiquita affiliate to the paramilitary group AUC, some of which was used to buy machine guns.

Workers' rights

A recurrent issue in agricultural large-scale production are workers' rights violations, in which Chiquita has been involved as well. In May 2007, the French

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

(NGO) Peuples Solidaires ( fr) publicly accused the Compañia Bananera Atlántica Limitada (COBAL), a Chiquita subsidiary, of knowingly violating "its workers' basic rights" and endangering their families' health and their own. According to the charge, the banana firm carelessly exposed laborers at the Coyol plantation in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

to highly toxic pesticides on multiple occasions. Additionally, COBAL was accused of using a private militia to intimidate workers. Finally, Peuples Solidaires claimed that Chiquita ignored some union complaints for more than a year. Another, more recent case of exploitative working conditions dates from April 2019. The Swiss magazine ''

Beobachter ''Beobachter'' (''Observer''), also known by its former name ''Der Schweizerische Beobachter'', is a German-language Swiss magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly) ...

'' publicised severe labour rights issues on Ecuador's banana plantations, some of which supply Chiquita. These violations involve 12-hour workdays, poverty wages and employment without contracts.

Environmental issues

In 1998, a coalition of social activist groups, led by the European Banana Action Network (EUROBAN), targeted the

banana industry The banana industry is an important part of the global industrial agrobusiness. About 15% of the global banana production goes to export and international trade for consumption in Western countries. They are grown on banana plantations primarily i ...

in general and Chiquita in particular, aiming to create a new climate of

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

. Their strategy was to encourage small farming of bananas rather than large scale monoculture, and to push for subsidies and other government relief to level the field for small producers. The

fair trade movement Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing country, developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improv ...

, which sought to influence consumers to purchase the products of smallholders, also joined in the action. Chiquita responded to the activism with changes in corporate management and new patterns of global competition, according to J. Gary Taylor and Patricia Scharlin. Chiquita partnered with the

Rainforest Alliance The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) with staff in more than 20 countries and operations in more than 70 countries. It was founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz, an American environmental activist, who serves ...

, an environmental group dedicated to preserving the rainforest, and made major reforms in the way they plant and protect their bananas. The changes focused on the use of pesticides but also affected corporate culture. In 2000, Chiquita adopted a new code of conduct that included

Social Accountability International The SA8000 Standard is an auditable certification standard that encourages organizations to develop, maintain, and apply socially acceptable practices in the workplace. It was developed in 1989 by Social Accountability International, formerly the C ...

SA8000 The SA8000 Standard is an auditable certification standard that encourages organizations to develop, maintain, and apply socially acceptable practices in the workplace. It was developed in 1989 by Social Accountability International, formerly the C ...

labor standard. Also in 2000, Chiquita achieved Rainforest Alliance certification for environmentally friendly practices on 100% of its farms. In 2001, Wal-Mart named Chiquita as the "Environmental Supplier of the Year". Chiquita has more recently been involved in the hazardous use of pesticides: The Danish media and research centre Danwatch, who specialise in investigative journalism, published a report on pesticide use on banana plantations in Ecuador, some of which supply Chiquita. They found aerial spraying of pesticides without warnings to workers, and the handling of pesticides without proper protections or equipment. Among the pesticides sprayed is

Paraquat Paraquat (trivial name; ), or ''N'',''N''′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium dichloride (systematic name), also known as methyl viologen, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H7N)2l2. It is classified as a viologen, a family of redox ...

, a highly hazardous pesticide forbidden in Switzerland and the EU. When approached for comment, Chiquita would neither confirm nor deny the allegations, but reportedly began an internal investigation, the results of which have not been made public.

References

External links

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United Fruit Historical Society
{{Authority control Food and drink companies established in 1871 Food manufacturers of the United States Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Agriculture companies of the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 Multinational food companies United Fruit Company Fruit production Banana production 2014 mergers and acquisitions Agriculture companies established in the 19th century