Dole Food Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dole Food Company, Inc. is an American-based agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Westlake Village, California and is the leading grower and packer of such food items as banana, nuts, pineapple and other fresh fruits and vegetables. It was founded in 1901 in Hawaiʻi as Hawaiian Pineapple Company by James Dole, who opened his first pineapple plantation in the central plateau of the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Today the company does business in over 90 countries and takes in upwards of $5.3 billion in annual revenue.
The Hawaiian Pineapple Company was later acquired by Castle & Cooke, which was renamed Dole Food Company, Inc in 1991. Castle & Cooke Inc, a real estate company, was spun off in 1995 and now separately listed. Dole incorporates the Standard Fruit Company, which was acquired by Castle & Cooke between 1964 and 1968. It was then the U.S.'s second largest producer and importer of bananas. Dole and Chiquita remain the top two U.S. banana companies.
Historically, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company had a hand in the overthrow of Hawaiʻi's last queen, Liliʻuokalani, and helped the U.S. establish Hawaiʻi as a territory. Sanford Dole, the cousin of James Dole, was briefly president of the Republic of Hawaiʻi in the years immediately following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, in 1893.
Dole Food Company, Inc. is member of the SA8000 Social Accountability International (SAI)
