HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Standard Fruit
OR:
Standard Fruit on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Standard Fruit Company (now
Dole plc Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company and Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish- American agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables ...
) was established in the United States in 1924 by the Vaccaro brothers. Its forerunner was started in 1899, when Sicilian Arberesh
immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
Joseph, Luca and Felix Vaccaro, together with Salvador D'Antoni, began importing bananas to
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
from
La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida, and a port city on the northern Caribbean coast in Honduras. It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With ...
,
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
. By 1915, the business had grown so large that it bought most of the ice factories in New Orleans in order to refrigerate its banana ships, leading to its president, Joseph Vaccaro, becoming known as the "Ice King". Along with the
United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was ...
, Standard Fruit played a significant role in the governments of Honduras and other
Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
n countries, which became known as "
banana republics In political science, the term ''banana republic'' describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resource.A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, where th ...
" due to the high degree of control which the fruit companies held over the nations. In 1926, the company changed its name from Standard Fruit Company to Standard Fruit & Steamship Company. Between 1964 and 1968, the company was acquired by the
Castle & Cooke Castle & Cooke, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company at one time did most of its business in agriculture, including becoming, through mergers with the modern Dole F ...
Corporation, which also acquired
James Dole James Drummond Dole (September 27, 1877 – May 20, 1958), the "Pineapple King", was an American industrialist who developed the pineapple industry in Hawaii. He established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (HAPCO) which was later reorganized to ...
's Hawaiian Pineapple Company (HAPCO) around the same time. In 1991, Castle & Cooke was renamed
Dole Food Company Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company and Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish- American agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables ...
. Castle & Cooke Inc, a real estate company, was spun off in 1995 and, following a 2000 management buyout, is now privately held.


1954 Honduras strike

In 1954, there was a general strike in Honduras against the Standard Fruit company among others. A detailed timeline can be seen below:


References


Further reading

*


External links


United Fruit Historical Resources website

Dole Food Company, Inc. website
{{banana production Dole plc 1924 establishments in Louisiana 1968 disestablishments in Louisiana 1968 mergers and acquisitions Agriculture in Hawaii American companies established in 1924 Banana production in the United States Business in Hawaii Defunct agriculture companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Hawaii Defunct companies based in Louisiana Food and drink companies disestablished in 1968 Food and drink companies established in 1924 Pineapple production