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

Content: 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. The Latin American press often referred to it as el pulpo (“the octopus”), accusing it of exploiting labourers, bribing officials, and influencing governments, especially during the period of Yankee “dollar diplomacy” in the early decades of the 20th century. The company’s defenders, however, pointed out that United Fruit’s early excesses were somewhat mitigated later. Through the Associated Producers Program, the company gradually transferred title of portions of its landholdings to individual growers, provided them with reasonable credit terms and technological assistance, and acted as marketing agent for their produce; its workers were comparatively well paid and were provided with medical care. After the European Union imposed import restrictions on bananas in the mid-1990s, Chiquita suffered steep declines in profits, which led to its reorganization under bankruptcy protection in 2001.