Chiquita Brands

International
CEO: Edward F. Lonergan
"The companys products and services are designed to win the hearts and
smiles of the world's consumers by helping them enjoy healthy fresh foods.
"

The Negative
Track Record of
Chiquita
The companies bad behaviour being put in the spotlight.

Funding A Terrorist Group?

That is something that the company Chiquita can say they have done. The company admitted in
March 2007, that from the time of 1997 to 2004 they had made payments to AUC which was a widely
known terrorist group based in Colombia, admitting to paying them eight hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars in US currency after the terrorist group announced war against the Colombian
government. To add onto to that the company also admitted to funding another terrorist group FARC
in the same time period of aiding AUC. The way Chiquita handled this criminal complaint was by
settling and paying a twenty five million dollar fine.

Aiding In the Killing of People?

In July of 2007 Chiquita faced a lawsuit under the Alien Tort Claims act in New Jersey.There
were multiple plaintiffs, who were family members of people that were targeted and killed by members
of the AUC in the 1990s to 2004. The people that were killed ranged from banana workers, to social
activists, The plaintiffs believed that because of all the funding the terrorist group AUC was receiving
from Chiquita it allowed the company to be involved and have a role in the killings, torture,
disappearances, and war crimes in the region. There were multiple claims just like this one against
Chiquita brought to US federal courts. There was one in the District of Columbia filed on June 7,
2007, in Florida, in New York, more and more lawsuits were put against the company. In March 2011
two more lawsuits were filed against Chiquita holding them responsible for the killing of nine hundred
and thirty-one people between 1990-2004. Chiquita denied being responsible for the deaths of others,
claiming that they themselves were targets of the group and only paid the groups to keep themselves
and employees safe. But later research done in April 2011 by an independent group called NSA
showed that it was the exact opposite and that the company gained nothing from funding the terrorist
groups.

Harming the Environment as Well?

A lawsuit was filed against Chiquita on February 9, 2015 having to do with the harming of the
environment. The plaintiff, Justin Jablonowski believed that Chiquita was misrepresenting their
environmental and harvesting practices. He wrote a twenty-eight page complaint explaining that the
way the bananas are grown are harming the Guatemalan people and destroying the region's
ecosystem. He further went on to say that When a company falsely represents itself as an exemplar
of environmental stewardship and/or omits the truth about its environmental and harvesting practices,
which would be material to a reasonable consumer, and thereby induces consumers to buy its
products, that company has engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices, In the quote
Jablonowski expresses his view on the way the company represents itself. Mentioning the famous
blue sticker of Chiquita he also voiced his opinion on the companys strict standards that have been
infringed upon by the the company in a multitude of ways. The company has mentioned that their
practices, conserve wildlife habitats, national resources and promote community well being. But in
actuality the company operates in impoverished areas of Guatemala,with bananas being grown in
ways that harm the natural environment, contaminating the water of residents in the area, and
poisoning the people. Chiquita neglects the negative effects they are causing to the people and the
environment in Guatemala and hides the information from the public. An investigation was launched
in May and is still underway to prove that Chiquita is harming the livelihood of the Guatemalan people

Boycotting Then Purchasing Conflict

Oil?
In December of 2011 Chiquita boycotted oilsands in Canada, and decided to be supplied by
conflict oil by OPEC. After that decision they were hit with massive amounts of comments about their
decision of choosing OPEC and Canada. The company believes that Canadian oil is unworthy
because of its oilsands. By the company doing this it promotes that even though OPEC oil is
produced in conflict zones, that are prone to violence over oil, it is better than oil produced in a
peaceful manner with a high quality staff and environment.

Smuggling of Drugs, Are We Even

Surprised?
An investigation was done on Chiquita and during that the head of the investigation received
many sources of information against Chiquita, including two thousand voicemail messages between
executives of Chiquita admitting their crimes which was acquired by the lead investigator from a
former legal counsel for Chiquita. In 1997 drug enforcement agents from the U.K and Belgium found
over a ton pure cocaine smuggled onto seven different Chiquita ships. After finding out about the
situation one of Chiquitas subsidiaries tried to bribe government officials in Turbo, Colombia. Later on
Chiquita tried to hide that the scandal occurred. The drugs that were found on the ships were not
produced by the company but by drug lords in the Columbia area that put their drugs on the ships.
The way that Chiquita is involved is that they are aware that their lax security system is not keeping
their ships secure, and they are aware that their inspections would not be able to detect the smuggled
materials.The company allows the smuggling of drugs to happen.

Is It Even Safe?
Chiquita grows bananas in a lot of countries but with much of the same method. Usually grown
in irrigated fields sometimes reaching heights of 30 ft, during their growing period the bananas are
sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, and nematicides, all very strong chemicals which end up as
runoff on the ocean harming the aquatic ecosystem. The plants are often aerial sprayed throughout
their growing period to stop the growth of fungus, but spray ends up on residents land, and in the
water supply potentially harming the residents. When the bananas are still green they are picked and
if they pass the appearence test they are sprayed with more pesticides, and then are shipped off.
After the shipment they are trained or trucked to their markets to be sold. In this process so many
things are disrupted in the ecosystem, the air, the water, and the ground. Also by Chiquita toying
around with the amount of chemicals they are using how does it affect us? As consumers we are
encouraging this awful act performed by Chiquita, encouraging them to harm the environment, and
allowing them to use large quantities of chemicals in our products.

GDP Comparison
Country

GDP

Populatio
n

Haiti

$8.459
billion

10.32
million

Togo

$4.339
billion

6.817
million

TimorLeste

$1.270
billion

1.180
million

Senegal

$14.79
billion

14.13
million

Rwanda

$7.521

11.78

Is Chiquita All
Evil?
Positive changes the companies have tried to do.

Rainforest Alliance?
The company Chiquita has launched rainforest alliance certified fruit in Europe, and now all over
the world ensuring that all their bananas are grown using techniques that are sustainable. They
combined their Chiquitas logo with the Rainforest Alliance frog logo to show their commitment to the
Rainforest Alliance social and environmental standards. For Chiquita to meet the standards set by the
Rainforest Alliance they had to implement more than two hundred criteria that had to do with the
protection of the environment and the fair treatment of their workers. The Chiquita farms are checked
by local environmental organizations to make sure they are still following the criteria. With
implementing these standards in 1992 they have made everlasting changes to the companies ways,
like the minimal pesticides now used, and the planting of trees the company does.

Social Accountability 8000?

Chiquita has also been focusing on improving their worker rights by their certification in social
accountability which is a standard set out by International Labor Organization and other human rights
group. Chiquita also has made labor work agreements with regional and international unions which
were signed on June 14th, 2001 to make sure the workers of Chiquita were working in suitable work
conditions, and that none of their human rights were ever taken away. It seems to be something that
the company is very proud of achieving and its show through statements given like, SA8000 is a
very high standard. We are pleased that our employees in Costa Rica succeeded in becoming our
first SA8000-certified division, which was said by Jeff Zalla, who is a corporate responsibility officer
for Chiquita. Also statements like, The changes enabled by the SA8000 certification process have
helped to create a more positive work environment, which translates into higher productivity, lower
operating costs and, ultimately, the best bananas in the business. said by Mark Oakley, a general
manager for Chiquita in Costa Rica continues to show how much the company has been embracing
all the aspects of the standard.

Chiquitas Corporate Social

Responsibility?
The company has had many downfallings but still tries to uphold values that they want to
represent their company. One of the ways the company tries to do this is by maintaining a relationship
with nations governments they operate in. As shown in the previous slides Chiquita has had a lot of
mishaps with the governments they operate in so they have very delicate relationships with them,
Chiquita maintains the fragile relationships by abiding to tax policies, and laws to their best ability.
Chiquita states their responsibility to the government is, "lawful conduct, continuing economic activity
and employment opportunities, employee health and safety, environmental protection, food safety,
integrity, and fair lobbying", and they continue to make that a goal of theirs to achieve in each country
they operate in. They see governments as potential partners for social investments, and this views
allows them to implements laws and policies set out by the government.

Broke Parts of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights?
Chiquita is a company that has operated for a long time and in Honduras for over a hundred
years. The company has an economic hold over the governments it operates in and the military
groups that are in the countries its hard for people to better the working conditions that Chiquita
offers, and civil liberties. It has been said that because of Chiquitas involvements in the countries its
in its been changing them for the better by offering jobs for people, and a way for people to get out of
poverty, but there have been many things that the company has done wronging the people in these
regions. Like when the company used a pesticide called Nemagon on their fields and with their
workers using no protection this pesticide caused infertility to the workers that were exposed to
Nemogen. Bu the company does not care unless it disrupts the production of its bananas.

Is Chiquita the
Most Evil
Corporation?
Is the positive able to outweigh the negative, or no?

Throughout the previous slides Ive been able to reiterate how evil Chiquita is
using different situations, and events where the companies true colours showed. I
also showed some of the positives things that the company highlights as part of their
efforts to being a good company, but we all were able to see behind all these
standards, criteria, and agreements the company meets and makes, they are just
lies that the company uses to hide what they do behind closed doors. The company
takes part in a lot of bad things, like associating with terrorist groups like AUC and
FARC, helping them continue to go against the government, and aiding them in
killing hundreds of people through funding. The company willingly gave their money
to the terrorists groups asking for nothing in return, and watched as they continued
their rebellion, making Chiquita partly responsible for the killings, torture,
disappearances, and war crimes in Columbia. Chiquita has the Rainforest Alliance
logo on all their bananas but their farms are not showing the environmental friendly
techniques they promised by being held to the Rainforest Alliance standard. Their
crops are treated with various types of harmful chemicals, that damage surrounding
wildlife, and often end up as runoff interrupting the surrounding aquatic life. These
chemicals also harm the people workers since the farms are usually located in
impoverished areas when the chemicals are sprayed they get on the people who live

around the area, and on the people outside doing daily work. Those chemicals often
cause rashes on people and can lead to long term illnesses. The company does not
support our country, Chiquita boycotted Canadas oil for Iranian oil in 2011 claiming
that Iranian oil is better. Another thing that the company has been linked to is the
smuggling of drugs through shipment. Many investigations have been done regarding
Chiquita and all the things it is involved in, because of the amount of tips investigators
get and these are just two was one of them. The first one has to do with how a lead
investigator who was the former legal counselor for Chiquita was able to acquires
voice messages between executives of Chiquita admitting to all their crimes. The
second deals with how some investigation agents from Belgium and U.K found over a
ton of cocaine in the cargo ships for Chiquita. All the things mentioned are just a few
of the things that Chiquita has done wrong.This company is able to hide its tracks
fairly well, but through the things that are able to be found out about the company it is
easy to come to the conclusion that this company is not good at all. Not only does this
company infringe on human rights, it also poses a major threat to the environment in
which it operates in, it meddles with governments positions by funding rebel groups,
and it deals in illegal businesses like smuggling of drugs, making it the most evil
corporation.

http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/chiquita/chiquita11.htm
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-bananas
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Citing