Title: Chiquita Brands International, Inc. | American corporation | Britannica
Headings: Chiquita Brands International, Inc.
Chiquita Brands International, Inc.
American corporation
Chiquita Brands International, Inc.

Content: United Fruit Company was founded in 1899 in the merger of the Boston Fruit Company and other companies producing and marketing bananas grown in the Caribbean islands, Central America, and Colombia. The principal founder was Minor C. Keith, who had begun to acquire banana plantations and to build a railroad in Costa Rica as early as 1872. In 1884 he contracted with the Costa Rican government to fund the national debt and to lay about 50 additional miles of track. In return he received full rights to these rail lines for 99 years as well as 800,000 acres (325,000 hectares) of virgin land, tax exempt for 20 years. United Fruit Company was initially capitalized at more than $11 million. However, by absorbing more than 20 rival firms, the company expanded its capitalization to $215 million by 1930, making it the largest employer in Central America. From the company’s founding, Caribbean and Latin American governments made available to it vast undeveloped tracts of jungle lands, which United Fruit cleared, planted, and supplied with extensive railroad and port facilities. Marketing operations included a shipping arm known as the Great White Fleet, then one of the largest private merchant navies. All these efforts were matched by an advertising campaign that was extremely successful in marketing bananas in North America and Europe. As a foreign corporation of conspicuous size, United Fruit sometimes became the target of popular attacks.