LA CEIBA

city, northern Honduras. It lies along the Gulf of Honduras, in a lush, hot valley at the foot of 7,989-foot (2,435-metre) Mount Bonito. Developed in the late 19th century as a banana port, La Ceiba is one of the nation's major Caribbean ports. Besides bananas, the port handles pineapples, citrus fruits, coconuts, abac fibre, fish, meat, coffee, and lumber. The Standard Fruit and Steamship Company, which operates large banana, citrus-fruit, and coconut plantations in the hinterland, is centred in the city. La Ceiba is also an industrial centre; shoes, soap, jams, dairy products, furniture, cement, metalware, paper, plastics, and pharmaceuticals are manufactured in the city, which also contains the world's largest banana chip and puree plant, a major vegetable-oil plant, palm-oil processing factories, rice mills, sawmills, breweries, tanneries, and a winery. Fishing has become an important industry, and refrigeration and packing plants have been built. In the 1970s La Ceiba became a major transit point for tourists to the Bay Islands. It has also developed banking and finance facilities. The city is linked to the other Caribbean ports and the Agun River valley by railroad and highway, and it has an international airport. Pop. (1989 est.) 71,600.