Word: chiquitas
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Clinton's people weren't the only ones looking after Lindner. Members of Congress--Democrats and Republicans, fund raisers all, beneficiaries themselves of Lindner's largesse--called or wrote or met with Kantor and the President to encourage action on behalf of Chiquita. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, did it. So did John Glenn, at the time a Democratic Senator from Ohio. And Republican Congressman Jim Bunning of Kentucky, now a Senator. And Charles Stenholm, the Democratic Representative from Texas. And Richard Lugar, the Republican Senator from Indiana. And Mike DeWine, the Republican Senator...
Carl Lindner began investing in bananas in the 1970s, and by 1984 he had acquired a controlling interest in one of America's enduring brand names. Lindner and his family, through their American Financial Group, own 40% of the outstanding shares in Chiquita Brands International, based in Cincinnati, Ohio...
Before Lindner bought in, Chiquita Brands was the old United Fruit Co., a ruthless buccaneer that earned a justifiable reputation as a tyrant that bribed officials of foreign governments, used armed force to keep its workers in line and generally mistreated its thousands of dirt-poor laborers on impoverished Caribbean islands and Central American plantations. All of which helps explain why Chiquita was--and is--the world's dominant banana producer...
...come to pass that the U.S. government launched a trade war over bananas at the expense of small American businesses, especially since the U.S. does not export bananas and Chiquita employs no American production workers...
Your story "Banana Wars," on trade agreements and restrictions [BUSINESS, Feb. 8], painted a one-sided picture of the dilemma. The dependency of Caribbean islands like St. Vincent and the Grenadines on bananas for hard currency far outweighs Chiquita's need to maintain market share in Europe. Perhaps if Chiquita's chairman, Carl Lindner, had not spent so much time and money lobbying Congress and the White House, his company would not have "lost money four of the past five years." It's been said that business is war, and wars cost money. Chiquita is at war with the eastern...