The top banana company internationally (now ChiquitaFyffes) was approved by the EU this week.
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A new merger was approved on Friday by the European Union (EU), between Chiquita Brands International and Fyfes,reported the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 3. This merger makes the leading and largest supplier of bananas even bigger.
Chiquita bought Dublin-based Fyffes for $526 million. This purchase makes the largest banana company on the market with Del Monte and Dole being the closest distributors before the merger.
The merger was met with certain stipulations attached. It was important that Chiquita and Fyffes did not make any exclusive deals with shipping companies for the next ten years. The merger provides an opportunity for the merged companies to stunt the access to shipping company services for other distributors. Creating incentives, for example, to shipping companies to only buy Chiquita/Fyffes brand bananas would break this agreement and could cause trouble for consumers and supermarkets.
After its investigation, the EU said that though this merger makes the biggest banana company, it will not stunt the availability of other brand bananas. The amount of bananas distributed by Chiquita/Fyffes still leaves quite a bit of the market open for other distributors. The Irish Times reported on Oct. 3 that the “combined company would have a 14 per cent share of the $7 billion global banana market.” Other banana suppliers will still be available in the supermarket produce aisle. Availability of other supplier brands include Del Monte, Dole, Bonita, Cobana, Noaboa and Rio Grande.
Chiquita will relocate its offices from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Dublin, Ireland. The merger will also merge the names of both companies to ChiquitaFyffes. ChiquitaFyffes will sell more than 160 million boxes of bananas per year, reported Barrons, much more than their nearest competitors, Del Monte and Dole.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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