Chiquita

Chiquita Brands International S.à.r.l. (/tʃɪˈkiːtə/), formerly known as United Fruit Company, is a Swiss company producing and distributing bananas and other produce. The company operates under subsidiary brand names, including the flagship Chiquita brand and Fresh Express salads. Chiquita is the leading distributor of bananas in the United States.

Chiquita is the successor to the United Fruit Company. It was formerly controlled by American businessman Carl Lindner Jr., whose majority ownership of the company ended when Chiquita Brands International exited a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 19 March 2002. In 2003, the company acquired the German produce distribution company, Atlanta AG. Fresh Express salads was purchased from Performance Food Group in 2005. Chiquita's former headquarters were located in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Chiquita Brands International's history began in 1870, when a ship's captain, named Lorenzo Dow Baker, purchased 160 bunches of bananas in Jamaica, and resold them in Jersey City, eleven days later. In 1873, Central American railroad developer Minor C. Keith began to experiment with banana production in Costa Rica. Later, he planted bananas alongside a Costa Rican railroad track to provide revenue for the railroad. In 1878, Baker partnered with Andrew Preston to form the Boston Fruit Company.

United Fruit Company was founded in 1899, when the Boston Fruit Company and various fruit exporting concerns controlled by Keith merged. In 1903, United Fruit Company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the first company to use refrigeration during open sea transport. In the same year, a US-funded railroad was built in Guatemala to benefit the company. During this period, United Fruit Company was known for its aggressive and exploitative practices in its operations in Central America. In 1913 the United Fruit Company created the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company.

In 1928, workers went on strike in protest against poor pay and working conditions in the company plantations in Ciénaga (Colombia). The company lobbied the U.S. government to send troops to assist in repressing the outbreak; however, the Colombian government opted to quell the strike on its own, sending its own military forces into the town of Ciénaga, where the strikers had gathered, on 6 December. The repression resulted in the deaths of scores of plantation workers and their families. This episode is known in the history of Colombia as the Masacre de las Bananeras (Banana Massacre).

United Fruit used emotionally charged advertising campaigns to gain support, like "The Great White Fleet," a cruise liner that took American tourists to nations in Central and South America that United Fruit had invested in. Positive corporate image was fostered by commercials, which presented these destinations as exotic, fun excursions. Nevertheless, well planned tourist trips concealed the brutal and corrupt reality that existed on United Fruit's plantations in Latin America. By 1930, the company's fleet had grown to 95 ships.

In 1944, the company premiered the "Chiquita Banana" advertising jingle, which extolled the virtues of the fruit as well as when to eat them and how to store them. The song, which had an infectious calypso beat, began with the words "I'm Chiquita Banana, and I've come to say." The brand name Chiquita was registered as a trademark in 1947.

In 1952, the government of Guatemala began expropriating unused United Fruit Company land to landless peasants. The company responded by intensively lobbying the U.S. government to intervene and mounting a misinformation campaign to portray the Guatemalan government as communist. In 1954, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency deposed the government of Guatemala, elected in 1950, and installed a pro-business military dictatorship.