Dole Food Company
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Agribusiness |
| Founded | June 2, 1851 Kingdom of Hawaii |
| Founder |
Samuel Northrup Castle Amos Starr Cooke |
| Headquarters | Westlake Village, California, U.S. |
|
Area served
|
Global |
|
Key people
|
David H. Murdock Chairman |
| Products |
Fruit Vegetables Other food products |
| Revenue | US $7.2 Billion (2011) |
| 38.4 million (2011) | |
|
Number of employees
|
34,500 (2011) |
| Website | www |
Dole Food Company, Inc. is an American agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Westlake Village, California. The company is the largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, operating with 74,300 full-time and seasonal employees who are responsible for over 300 products in 90 countries. Dole markets such food items as bananas, pineapples (fresh and packaged), grapes, strawberries, salads, and other fresh and frozen fruits and juices.
Dole's Chairman founded the Dole Nutrition Institute, a nutritional research and education foundation.
The company traces its origin to the 1851 establishment of Castle & Cooke by missionaries Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke. Castle & Cooke rapidly became one of the largest companies in Hawaii, investing in shipping, railroad construction, sugar production, and seafood packing. The other half of Dole's corporate heritage, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, was founded in 1901 by James Dole, who opened his first pineapple plantation in the central plateau of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Sanford Dole, the cousin of James, had been president of the Republic of Hawaii from 1894 after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii (her last monarch, Queen Liliʻuokalani), and first governor of the Territory of Hawaii until 1903. The annexation of Hawaii to the United States made selling agricultural products to the mainland much more profitable, since they would never be subject to import tariffs.
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Wikipedia