for other uses see chiquita disambiguation . chiquita brands international inc. type private industry agriculture founded 1863 ; 153 years ago 1863 headquarters rolle vaud switzerland key people andrew biles president and chief executive officer products produce primarily bananas owner cutrale and safra number of employees 20 000 website www.chiquita.com chiquita brands international inc. is an american producer and distributor of bananas and other produce . the company operates under a number of 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 cincinnati businessman carl h. 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 current headquarters is located in charlotte north carolina . 1 on 10 march 2014 chiquita brands international inc. and fyffes plc announced that the boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which chiquita will combine with fyffes in a stock for stock transaction that is expected to result in chiquita shareholders owning approximately 50.7 % of chiquitafyffes and fyffes shareholders owning approximately 49.3 % of the proposed chiquitafyffes on a fully diluted basis . the agreement would have created the largest banana producer in the world and would have been domiciled in ireland . 2 though an intervening offer by cutrale and safra groups of 611 million in august 2014 was rejected by chiquita with the company saying it would continue with its merger with fyffes 3 on 24 october chiquita announced that the shareholders at a company special meeting had rejected the merger with fyffes . instead the cutrale safra acquisition offer was then accepted by the shareholders . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 controversy 1.2.1 cincinnati enquirer charges 1.2.2 environmental awareness 1.2.3 payments to foreign terrorist groups 1.2.4 workers rights 1.3 restructuring 1.4 acquisition 2 operations 3 logo 4 see also 5 references 6 further reading 7 external links history edit chiquita scandinavia a former chiquita brands international ship . 5 early history edit main article united fruit company chiquita brands international s history began in 1870 when ship s captain 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 . 6 in 1878 baker partnered with andrew preston to form the boston fruit company . 7 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 . by 1930 the company s fleet had grown to 95 ships . 6 the brand name chiquita was registered as a trademark in 1947 . by 1955 united fruit company was processing 2.7 billion pounds 1.2 billion kilograms of fruit a year . in 1966 the company expanded into europe . in 1970 the company merged with amk corporation and changed its name to united brands company . 6 eli black took a controlling interest by outbidding two other conglomerates zapata corporation and textron . 8 after the suicide of black the company was acquired by seymour milstein and paul milstein . in 1980 chiquita was an official sponsor of the winter olympics in lake placid new york . 6 in 1984 cincinnati investor carl lindner jr. became the controlling investor in united brands . 9 in 1928 thousands of workers were murdered by military forces in ci naga colombia . the workers were protesting against the bad working conditions in the company plantations . this episode is known in the history of colombia as the masacre de las bananeras banana massacre . gabriel garc a m rquez describes in his novel one hundred years of solitude the inhuman impact that the company had in colombia . in 1990 the company renamed itself chiquita brands international as it undertook major investments in costa rica . in 1993 the company was hit by european tariffs on the import of latin american bananas . in 1994 select chiquita farms were certified the rainforest alliance s better banana project as being environmentally friendly . in 1995 the company sold the john morrell meat business that was part of the original amk corporation . in 1998 the world s largest banana processing facility debuted in costa rica . 6 controversy edit cincinnati enquirer charges edit chiquita center in downtown cincinnati ohio on 3 may 1998 the cincinnati enquirer published an eighteen page section chiquita secrets revealed by investigative reporters michael gallagher and cameron mcwhirter . the section accused the company of mistreating workers on its central american plantations polluting the environment allowing cocaine to be brought to borneo on its ships bribing foreign officials evading foreign nations laws on land ownership forcibly preventing its workers from unionizing and a host of other misdeeds . 10 chiquita denied all the allegations and sued after it was revealed that gallagher had repeatedly hacked into chiquita s voice mail system . no evidence ever indicated that mcwhirter was aware of gallagher s crime or a participant . a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate because the elected prosecutor at the time had ties to carl lindner jr. on 28 june 1998 the enquirer retracted the entire series of stories and published a front page apology saying it had become convinced that the published accusations and conclusions are untrue and created a false and misleading impression of chiquita s business practices . 11 the enquirer also agreed to pay a multi million dollar settlement . the exact amount was not disclosed but chiquita s annual report mentions a cash settlement in excess of 10 million . gallagher was fired and prosecuted and the paper s editor lawrence k. beaupre was transferred to the gannett s headquarters amid allegations that he ignored the paper s usual procedures on fact checking . in an article examining the chiquita series salon.com said the chiquita secrets revealed series presents a damning carefully documented array of charges most of them untainted by those purloined executive voice mails . 12 environmental awareness edit in 1998 a coalition of social activist groups led by the european banana action network euroban targeted the banana industry in general and chiquita in particular aiming to create a new climate of corporate social responsibility . their strategy was to encourage small farming of bananas rather than large scale monoculture and to push for subsidies and other government relief to level the field for small producers . the fair trade movement which sought to influence consumers to purchase the products of smallholders also joined in the action . 13 chiquita responded to the activism with changes in corporate management and new patterns of global competition according to j. gary taylor and patricia scharlin . chiquita partnered with the rainforest alliance an environmental group dedicated to preserving the rainforest and made major reforms in the way they plant and protect their bananas . the changes focused on the use of pesticides but also affected corporate culture . 13 in 2000 chiquita adopted a new code of conduct that included the social accountability international s sa8000 labor standard . also in 2000 chiquita achieved rainforest alliance certification for environmental friendly practices on 100 % of its farms . in 2001 wal mart named chiquita as the environmental supplier of the year . 6 payments to foreign terrorist groups edit see also colombian armed conflict and doe v. chiquita brands international on 14 march 2007 chiquita brands was fined 25 million as part of a settlement with the united states justice department for having ties to colombian paramilitary groups . according to court documents between 1997 and 2004 officers of a chiquita subsidiary paid approximately 1.7 million to the right wing united self defense forces of colombia auc in exchange for local employee protection in colombia s volatile banana harvesting zone . similar payments were also made to the revolutionary armed forces of colombia farc as well as the national liberation army eln from 1989 to 1997 both left wing organizations . 14 15 all three of these groups are on the u.s. state department s list of foreign terrorist organizations . chiquita sued to prevent the united states government from releasing files about their illegal payments to colombian left wing guerrillas and right wing paramilitary groups . 16 according to a wall street journal report in 2004 outside attorneys for chiquita notified the company that the payments violated u.s. anti terrorism laws and should not continue . however payments to the groups continued until chiquita sold its subsidiary banadex in june 2004 . 17 on 7 december 2007 the 29th specialized district attorney s office in medell n colombia subpoenaed the chiquita board to answer questions concerning charges for conspiracy to commit an aggravated crime and financing illegal armed groups . nine board members named in the subpoena allegedly personally knew of the illegal operations . 18 one executive for the company penned a note which proclaimed that the payments were the cost of doing business in colombia and also noted the need to keep this very confidential people can get killed . 19 in 2013 and 2014 chiquita spent 780 000 lobbying against the justice against sponsors of terrorism act hiring lobbyists from covington and burling a high powered white shoe law firm . 20 on 24 july 2014 a us appeals court threw out a lawsuit against chiquita by 4 000 colombians alleging that the corporation was aiding the right wing paramilitary group responsible for the deaths of family members . the court ruled 2 1 that us federal courts have no jurisdiction over colombian claims . 21 22 in 2016 judge kenneth marra of the southern district of florida ruled in favor of allowing colombians to sue former chiquita brand international executives for the company s funding of the outlawed right wing paramilitary organization that murdered their family members . he stated in his decision that profits took priority over basic human welfare in the banana company executives decision to finance the illegal death squads despite knowing that this would advance the paramilitaries murderous campaign . 23 workers rights edit in may 2007 the french non governmental organization ngo peuples solidaires publicly accused the compa ia bananera atl ntica limitada cobal a chiquita subsidiary of knowingly violating its workers basic rights and endangering their families health and their own . according to the charge the banana firm carelessly exposed laborers at the coyol plantation in costa rica to highly toxic pesticides on multiple occasions . additionally cobal was accused of using a private militia to intimidate workers . finally peuples solidaires claimed that chiquita ignored some union complaints for more than a year . 24 restructuring edit in november 2001 chiquita filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to restructure the company . 6 it emerged from the bankruptcy on 19 march 2002 ending cincinnati businessman carl h. lindner jr. s control of the company . also in 2002 chiquita joined the ethical trading initiative and was named as a top green stock by the progressive investor . 6 in 2003 chiquita acquired the german produce distribution company atlanta ag . it also sold its processed foods division to seneca foods that year . in 2004 100 % of chiquita farms were certified compliant with the sa8000 labor standard