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CHIQUITA BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC.
Main address: 250 East Fifth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, USA
Telephon: (513) 7848011;
Fax: (513) 7848030Main shareholder: American Financial Corporation, controlled by Carl Lindner
Employees: Chiquita employs 46.000 people, 38.000 of whom are in Central America
Sales, activities and ownership: Chiquita is the world leading producer and marketer of a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. In 1993 it had $2.5 billion of revenues, roughly 60% of which was derived from banana business. Chiquita owns various plantations in Panama, Honduras, Colombia, the Philippines, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala. 33% of the bananas sold by Chiquita originate from Panama, and 20% from Honduras. Bananas originating from either Colombia, The Philippines, Ecuador, Costa Rica or Guatemala each comprise between 6 to 14 percent of the total amount of bananas sold by Chiquita. Chiquita owns approximately 155.000 acres and leases about 45.000 acres of improved land in Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras. All this land is used for cultivation of bananas and related supporting activities including the maintenance of floodways. The company also owns power plants, packing stations, warehouses, irrigation systems and loading & unloading facilities used in connection with its banana operations. In Honduras Chiquita operates under the name of Tela Road. The producers here are officially said to be 'independent', but are in fact tied to the Chiquita corporation in several ways. The price the 'independent' banana producers get is very low, and much money goes to the Chiquita Corporation, that only provides a few services in return. These services however, are also used as a method to control and check the production, so that one cannot really speak of 'independent' producers. Tela Road's strategy to exercise her control most efficiently is to divide the producers in groups. The largest group is the "Associac’on Nacional de los Productores Independientes" (ANBI). Chiquita has operated in Costa Rica from the beginning of this century. The corporation has two branch offices in this country: 'Compan’a Bananera de Costa Rica' and 'Compan’a Bananera Atlántica' (Cobal).
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