Chiquita
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Achievements
Chiquita was one of the first to recognize what an important role a brand could play in a commodity category, and the company has worked hard to cultivate a strong relationship with consumers. Chiquita is also one of the best-known brands in America. More than 90 percent of consumers know the Chiquita brand and Chiquita is the preferred banana brand.1 Consumers love Chiquita, as do supermarket retailers. The strength of the brand results in greater sales for retailers who stock Chiquita.
While Chiquita is well known as America’s favorite banana brand, the company also pioneered many of the practices employed today in the growing, harvesting, handling, packaging, and ripening of bananas — and even operates its own fleet of shipping vessels. First launched in 1899, the ships — known as the “Great White Fleet” — were painted white to reflect the heat of the tropical sun and thus maintain the optimum temperature for bananas. Chiquita has since set many industry standards — including refrigerated shipping vessels, innovative packaging, and container ripening procedures. The company continues to combine state-of-the-art technical practices with careful handling in order to provide the best quality bananas possible.
Recognizing the need to protect the lands where its bananas are grown, Chiquita has led the industry in implementing environmentally responsible agricultural practices. In 2000 — after investing eight years of effort and more than $20 million in capital improvements — Chiquita became the first global banana brand to have 100 percent of company-owned banana farms receive certification from The Rainforest Alliance for meeting strict sustainable environmental and social performance standards. Each year, all Chiquita-owned farms — which total approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) — are recertified by The Rainforest Alliance based on independent farm-by-farm audits of performance.
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