Fyffes and Chiquita to create biggest banana firm

[brooklynite]

Source: BBC

Irish fruit firm Fyffes and US rival Chiquita are to merge to create the world's largest banana company, worth about $1bn (£597m).

The new firm, named ChiquitaFyffes, is expected to sell about 160 million boxes of bananas annually, more than any rival.

"This is a milestone transaction for Chiquita and Fyffes that brings together the best of both companies," said Chiquita boss Ed Lonergan.

It will be listed in New York.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26511507

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Yes, we have no bananas...

[mac56]

1. Well, that has appeal.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Just what we need ... bigger bananananananas.

Real originality coming up with the new name, BTW.

[bossy22]

3. Don't tell the Minions

....Sorry I've been watching way too many Disney movies these days..

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Will the CIA be overthrowing any other

sovereign governments on their behalf?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBSUCCESS

[dipsydoodle]

6. Yes - pertinent part here :

CIA Director Dulles and his brother, John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State; they mislabeled the Árbenz Government of Guatemala as proof of the political infiltration of the Western Hemisphere, by the international communist conspiracy of the USSR. Each man owned capital stock in the United Fruit Company, and some have claimed[who?] that each man flouted that inherent conflict of interest with his government job; thus, the Dulles brothers’ conflation of public policy (duelling hegemonies) and private profit (corporate ownership) made feasible the coup d’état against President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, in June 1954.

Same link as above http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBSUCCESS

[dipsydoodle]

5. Fuck both of them.

Buy Fair Trade bananas. Generally speaking UK supermarkets only sell Fair Trade bananas


Multinational Companies:
United Fruit Co, Chiquita
http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/chiquita.htm

For Fyffes / United Fruit see : http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nI6vKvIR18cC&pg=PA355&lpg=PA355&dq=fyffes+united+fruit&source=bl&ots=jLY8CLblwT&sig=hKR2soF-NvhHp1XSpb9tsHkXoQg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vhMeU9jFBKaw7Aae_oHgCA&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=fyffes%20united%20fruit&f=false

[City Lights]

7. Bigger does not mean better.

I despise Chiquita.

[FrodosPet]

8. Bananas are not from local sources

To fight climate change, we need to quit eating food that has to take a long carbon dioxide producing trip from the tropics.

The people of Panama should be eating Panamanian food. The people in Peru should be eating Peruvian food. And the people of the U.S. should not be eating anything that has to travel more than 200 miles.

"Yummy" is not more important than global warming.

[City Lights]

10. Totally agree.

When I was a kid, we has "summer" fruit and "winter" fruit. Now we have whatever we want year round because it comes to us from wherever growing season is at the time.

[NickB79]

13. There are always pawpaw fruits for us Northerners

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba

Pawpaw fruits have a sweet, custardish flavor somewhat similar to banana, mango, and cantaloupe,[2][4][21] varying significantly by source or cultivar,[2] with more protein than most fruits.

My experimental sapling, planted a full zone north of it's native range, battled the Minnesota winters admirably for two years, before rabbits sent it to it's death

I WILL have my pawpaw grove one of these days, damn it. Along with a nice rabbit stew.

[WatermelonRat]

14. I was able to grow a couple pawpaws that were technically outside the right zone (Michigan)

They survived, but they didn't really thrive and never grew fruit. There's a town nearby called "Paw Paw" so I assume that they must be capable of growing well around these parts...

[Trajan]

9. the biggest firm banana?

C'mon ... this is an adolescent's dream ...

[MyNameGoesHere]

11. This is a milestone transaction for Chiquita and Fyffes that brings together the best of both.."

So now we get a double down of exploitation, the legacy of United Fruit lives on.

If people knew the history behind all the exploitation in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially involving fruits and sugar crops, they would understand why I vehemently defend a country like Venezuela. Even if Maduro is the devil incarnate, US involvement and influence is more evil and has caused more death and destruction than any dictator.

[NickB79]

12. Enjoy them while they last (bananas, that is)

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/how-the-global-banana-industry-is-killing-the-world%E2%80%99s-favorite-fruit-1

Over the half-century it took to wipe out the Gros Michel, Race 1 caused at least $2.3 billion in damage (around $18.2 billion in today’s terms.) And that was in the commercial heart of global banana production. Tropical Race 4, by comparison, has damaged $400 million in banana crops in the Philippines alone.

But the bigger difference now is that, compared its 20th-century cousin, Tropical Race 4 is a pure killing machine—and not just for Cavendishes. Scores of other species that are immune to Race 1 have no defenses against the new pathogen. In fact, Tropical Race 4 is capable of killing at least 80%—though possibly as much as 85%—of the 145 million tonnes (160 million tons) of bananas and plantains produced each year, says Ploetz.

I suspect Chiquita and Fyffes are "circling the wagons" to protect themselves as best they can when (not if) Race 4 hits their South American plantations.