Editing United Fruit Company (section)

==Corporate history==

===Early years===
In 1871, U.S. railroad entrepreneur [[Henry Meiggs]] signed a contract with the government of [[Costa Rica]] to build a railroad connecting the capital city of [[San José, Costa Rica|San José]] to the port of [[Limón]] in the [[Caribbean Sea|Caribbean]]. Meiggs was assisted in the project by his young nephew, [[Minor C. Keith]], who took over Meiggs's business concerns in Costa Rica after his death in 1877. Keith began experimenting with the planting of bananas as a cheap source of food for his workers.<ref name="UFCo-HS-Keith">{{cite web |url=http://www.unitedfruit.org/keith.htm |title=Minor Cooper Keitmurderersh (1848–1929) |publisher=United Fruit Historical Society |year=2001 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030011947/http://www.unitedfruit.org/keith.htm |archive-date=2008-10-30 }}</ref>

When the Costa Rican government defaulted on its payments in 1882, Keith had to borrow [[Pound sterling|£]]1.2&nbsp;million from London banks and from private investors to continue the difficult engineering project.<ref name="UFCo-HS-Keith"/> In exchange for this and for renegotiating Costa Rica's own debt, in 1884, the administration of President [[Próspero Fernández Oreamuno]] agreed to give Keith {{convert|800000|acre|sqkm}} of tax-free land along the railroad, plus a 99-year lease on the operation of the train route. The railroad was completed in 1890, but the flow of passengers proved insufficient to finance Keith's debt. However, the sale of bananas grown in his lands and transported first by train to Limón, then by ship to the United States, proved very lucrative. Keith eventually came to dominate the banana trade in Central America and along the Caribbean coast of [[Colombia]].

===United Fruit (1899–1970)===
[[File:UFCjamaica.jpg|thumb|Banana company staff in Jamaica as part of United Fruit Company campaign to promote tourism]]
[[File:Louisiana - New Orleans - NARA - 23940547 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Docks of the United Fruit Company in New Orleans, 1922]]
In 1899, Keith lost $1.5&nbsp;million when Hoadley and Co., a New York City broker, went bankrupt.<ref name="UFCo-HS-Keith"/> He then traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to participate in the merger of his banana trading company, [[Tropical Trading and Transport Company]], with the rival Boston Fruit Company. Boston Fruit had been established by [[Lorenzo Dow Baker]], a sailor who, in 1870, had bought his first bananas in Jamaica, and by [[Andrew W. Preston]]. Preston's lawyer, [[Bradley Palmer]], had devised a scheme for the solution of the participants' cash flow problems and was in the process of implementing it. 
The merger formed the United Fruit Company, based in Boston, with Preston as president and Keith as vice-president. Palmer became a permanent member of the executive committee and for long periods of time the director. From a business point of view, Bradley Palmer was United Fruit. Preston brought to the partnership his plantations in the [[West Indies]], a fleet of steamships, and his market in the U.S. Northeast. Keith brought his plantations and railroads in Central America and his market in the U.S. South and Southeast. At its founding, United Fruit was capitalized at $11.23&nbsp;million. The company at Palmer's direction proceeded to buy, or buy a share in, 14 competitors, assuring them of 80% of the banana import business in the United States, then their main source of income. The company catapulted into financial success. Bradley Palmer overnight became a much-sought-after expert in business law, as well as a wealthy man. He later became a consultant to presidents and an adviser to Congress.
[[File:Street in Belize - British Honduras.jpg|thumb|An illustration from ''The Golden Caribbean'']]
In 1900, the United Fruit Company produced ''The Golden Caribbean: A Winter Visit to the Republics of Colombia, Costa Rica, Spanish Honduras, Belize and the Spanish Main – via Boston and New Orleans'' written and illustrated by Henry R. Blaney. The travel book featured landscapes and portraits of the inhabitants pertaining to the regions where the United Fruit Company possessed land. It also described the voyage of the United Fruit Company's steamer, and Blaney's descriptions and encounters of his travels.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Caribbean: A Winter Visit to the Republics of Colombia, Costa Rica, Spanish Honduras, Belize and the Spanish Main – via Boston and New Orleans|url=https://archive.org/details/goldencaribbean00blangoog|last=Blaney|first=Henry Robertson|date=1900|publisher=Lee and Shepard, Norwood Press|location=Norwood, Massachusetts|hdl = 2027/nyp.33433022849396}}</ref>

In 1901, the government of [[Guatemala]] hired the United Fruit Company to manage the country's postal service, and in 1913 the United Fruit Company created the [[Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company]]. By 1930, it had absorbed more than 20 rival firms, acquiring a capital of $215&nbsp;million and becoming the largest employer in Central America. In 1930, [[Sam Zemurray]] (nicknamed "Sam the Banana Man") sold his [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]] to United Fruit and retired from the fruit business. By then, the company held a major role in the national economies of several countries and eventually became a symbol of the exploitative export economy. This led to serious labor disputes by the Costa Rican peasants, involving more than 30 separate unions and 100,000 workers, in the [[Trade unions in Costa Rica#Growing political pressure and the 1934 United Fruit Banana Strike|1934 Great Banana Strike]], one of the most significant actions of the era by [[trade unions in Costa Rica]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bUM8y5L1h8kC&q=costa+rica+history+united+fruit+company'&pg=PA80|title=The History of Costa Rica|first=Monica A.|last=Rankin|date=11 May 2018|publisher=ABC-CLIO|via=Google Books|isbn=9780313379444}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GMY-KA4XAIC&q=great+banana+strike+1934&pg=PA128|title=The Costa Rica Reader: History, Culture, Politics|first1=Steven|last1=Palmer|first2=Iván|last2=Molina|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Duke University Press|via=Google Books|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511011420/https://books.google.com/books?id=6GMY-KA4XAIC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=great+banana+strike+1934&source=bl&ots=_xsj4jOuiH&sig=-79xkzgESvaz34Dtu8hCS0j7WB8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRsNbJ6b7VAhVn7oMKHR_VD9cQ6AEIODAC#v=onepage&q=great+banana+strike+1934&f=false|archive-date=11 May 2018|isbn=978-0822382812}}</ref>

By the 1930s the company owned {{convert|3.5|e6acre}} of land in Central America and the Caribbean and was the single largest land owner in Guatemala. Such holdings gave it great power over the governments of small countries. That was one of the factors that led to the coining of the phrase "[[banana republic]]".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WH5jDgAAQBAJ&q=United+Fruit+company+Banana+republics&pg=PT31|title=America's Backyard: The United States and Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the War on Terror|first=Grace|last=Livingstone|date=4 April 2013|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|via=Google Books|isbn=9781848136113}}</ref>

In 1933, concerned that the company was mismanaged and that its market value had plunged, Zemurray staged a [[hostile takeover]]. Zemurray moved the company's headquarters to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was based. United Fruit went on to prosper under Zemurray's management;<ref name="Slate">{{cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Rich |title=The Birth of America's Banana King: An excerpt from Rich Cohen's The Fish That Ate the Whale |journal=Slate |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/06/banana_mangante_samuel_zemurray_rich_cohen_s_the_fish_that_ate_the_whale.single.html |date=June 6, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113095416/http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/06/banana_mangante_samuel_zemurray_rich_cohen_s_the_fish_that_ate_the_whale.single.html |archive-date=January 13, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Samuel Zemurray (1877–1961) |url=http://www.unitedfruit.org/zemurray.htm |publisher=United Fruit Historical Society |year=2001 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002944/http://www.unitedfruit.org/zemurray.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> Zemurray resigned as president of the company in 1951.

In addition to many other labor actions, the company faced two major strikes of workers in South and Central America, in Colombia in 1928 and the Great Banana Strike of 1934 in Costa Rica.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&q=Great+Banana+strike+1934++Zemurray&pg=PA1039|title=Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History : a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia|author1-link=J. Michael Francis|first=John Michael|last=Francis|date=11 May 2018|publisher=ABC-CLIO|via=Google Books|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511011420/https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&pg=PA1039&dq=Great+Banana+strike+1934++Zemurray&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-v-i5_tLVAhWo4IMKHR3TDi4Q6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=Great+Banana+strike+1934++Zemurray&f=false|archive-date=11 May 2018|isbn=9781851094219}}</ref> The latter was an important step that would eventually lead to the formation of effective [[trade unions in Costa Rica]] since the company was required to sign a collective agreement with its workers in 1938.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YujmDAAAQBAJ&q=Great+Banana+strike+1934&pg=PT135|title=Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899–2000|first=Marcelo|last=Bucheli|date=1 February 2005|publisher=NYU Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780814769874}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/winnerslosershow00shaf|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/winnerslosershow00shaf/page/213 213]|quote=Great Banana strike 1934 collective agreement.|title=Winners and Losers: How Sectors Shape the Developmental Prospects of States|first=D. Michael|last=Shafer|date=11 May 1994|publisher=Cornell University Press|via=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0801481888}}</ref> Labor laws in most banana production countries began to be tightened in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uzu1AHQFxWMC&q=United+Fruit+company+central+america+strikes+1920s+and+1930s&pg=PA33|title=In the Shadows of State and Capital: The United Fruit Company, Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador, 1900–1995|first=Steve|last=Striffler|date=11 May 2018|publisher=Duke University Press|via=Google Books|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511011420/https://books.google.com/books?id=Uzu1AHQFxWMC&pg=PA33&dq=United+Fruit+company+central+america+strikes+1920s+and+1930s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-5LPb_9LVAhXp6YMKHXCuAA0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=United+Fruit+company+central+america+strikes+1920s+and+1930s&f=false|archive-date=11 May 2018|isbn=978-0822328636}}</ref> United Fruit Company saw itself as being specifically targeted by the reforms, and often refused to negotiate with strikers, despite frequently being in violation of the new laws.<ref name="Immerman">{{cite book |last=Immerman |first=Richard H. |year=1982 |title=The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention |url=https://archive.org/details/ciainguatemalafo0000imme/page/75 |url-access=registration |location=Austin, Texas |publisher=Univ. of Texas Press |isbn=9780292710832 |pages=75–82 }}</ref><ref name="Kerssen">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KLCwDqyBi-YC&q=United+Fruit+strike+1954+Honduras&pg=PA16|title=Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food and Democracy in Northern Honduras|first=Tanya M.|last=Kerssen|date=8 January 2013|publisher=Food First Books|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511011420/https://books.google.com/books?id=KLCwDqyBi-YC&pg=PA16&dq=United+Fruit+strike+1954+Honduras&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijqf2IgdPVAhUi5YMKHdX6CHsQ6AEIYDAJ#v=onepage&q=United+Fruit+strike+1954+Honduras&f=false|archive-date=11 May 2018|isbn=9780935028447|pages=16–17}}</ref>

In 1952, the government of Guatemala began expropriating unused United Fruit Company land to landless peasants.<ref name="Immerman"/> The company responded by intensively lobbying the U.S. government to intervene and mounting a misinformation campaign to portray the Guatemalan government as [[communism|communist]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schlesinger |first1=Stephen |last2=Kinzer |first2=Stephen |author2-link=Stephen Kinzer |title=Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala |year=1999 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-01930-0 |pages=90–97}}</ref> In 1954, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency armed, funded, and trained a military force that [[1954 Guatemalan coup d'état|deposed the democratically elected government of Guatemala]] and installed a pro-business military dictatorship.<ref name="Forster 2001 202">{{Cite book|last=Forster|first=Cindy|title=The Time of Freedom: Campesino Workers in Guatemala's October Revolution|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5937zVXHZV8C|isbn=978-0-8229-4162-0|page=202}}</ref>

In 1967, it acquired the [[A&W Restaurants]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=FAST-FOOD PIONEER A&W SURVIVES TO MAP COMEBACK |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-19-8903110146-story.html |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=Chicago Tribune|date=19 November 1989 }}</ref>

===United Brands (1970–1984)===
[[Corporate raid]]er [[Eli M. Black]] bought 733,000 shares of United Fruit in 1968, becoming the company's largest shareholder. In June 1970, Black merged United Fruit with his own public company, AMK (owner of meat packer [[Smithfield Foods|John Morrell]]), to create the '''United Brands Company'''. United Fruit had far less cash than Black had counted on, and Black's mismanagement led to United Brands becoming crippled with debt. The company's losses were exacerbated by [[Hurricane Fifi]] in 1974, which destroyed many banana plantations in [[Honduras]]. On February 3, 1975, Black committed suicide by jumping out a window from the 44th floor of the [[Pan Am Building]] in New York City. Later that year, the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] exposed a scheme by United Brands (dubbed [[Bananagate]]) to bribe Honduran President [[Oswaldo López Arellano]] with $1.25&nbsp;million, plus the promise of another $1.25&nbsp;million upon the reduction of certain export taxes. Trading in United Brands stock was halted, and López was ousted in a military coup.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

===Chiquita Brands International===
{{Main|Chiquita Brands International}}
After Black's suicide, [[Cincinnati]]-based [[American Financial Group]], one of billionaire [[Carl Lindner, Jr.]]'s companies, bought into United Brands. In August 1984, Lindner took control of the company and renamed it Chiquita Brands International. The headquarters was moved to Cincinnati in 1985. By 2019, the company's main offices left the United States and relocated to Switzerland.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Throughout most of its history, United Fruit's main competitor was the [[Standard Fruit Company]], now the [[Dole Food Company]].{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}