UNITED BRANDS COMPANY

American corporation formed in 1970 in the merger of United Fruit Company and AMK Corporation (the holding company for John Morrell and Co., meat-packers). It engages in the production and distribution of bananas and other fruits and produce, the processing and distribution of meats, the manufacture and distribution of other foods, fats, oils, and beverages, and the administration of diversified activities in plastics, animal feeds, telecommunications, and other areas. Headquarters for United Brands are in New York City. United Fruit Company, the main company, was founded in 1899 in the merger of the Boston Fruit Company and other companies producing and marketing bananas grown in the Caribbean islands, Central America, and Colombia. The principal founder was Minor C. Keith, who had begun to acquire banana plantations and to build a railroad in Costa Rica as early as 1872. In 1884 he contracted with the Costa Rican government to fund the national debt and to lay about 50 more miles of track. In return he received, for 99 years, full rights to these rail lines and 800,000 acres (325,000 hectares) of virgin land, tax exempt for 20 years. United Fruit Company was capitalized at $11,230,000 at its founding. The company then expanded its capitalization to $215,000,000 by 1930 by absorbing more than 20 rival firms, and it became the largest employer in Central America. From the time the company began, Caribbean and Latin-American governments made available vast undeveloped tracts of jungle lands, which United Fruit cleared, planted, and supplied with extensive railroad and port facilities. Marketing operations included a shipping arm, the Great White Fleet, one of the largest of private merchant navies. All these efforts were matched by an advertising campaign that was extremely successful in marketing bananas in North America and Europe. As a foreign corporation of conspicuous size, United Fruit sometimes became the target of popular attacks. The Latin-American press often referred to it as el pulpo (the octopus), accusing it of exploiting labourers, bribing officials, and influencing governments during the period of Yankee dollar diplomacy in the first decades of the 20th century. The company's defenders, however, have pointed out that United Fruit's early excesses were somewhat mitigated later. Through the Associated Producers Program, the company gradually transferred title of portions of its landholdings to individual growers, provided them with reasonable credit terms and technological assistance, and acted as marketing agent for their produce; its workers were comparatively well paid and were provided with medical care. United Brands still owns or leases extensive banana plantations in Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Colombia. It also has continued to produce, for the U.S. government, Jamaican sugar; Costa Rican, Panamanian, and Ecuadorian cocoa; and abaca in Guatemala. Throughout Central America and northern South America, it has maintained holdings that produced tropical woods, quinine, essential oils, and rubber.