Cuyamel Fruit Company
Encyclopedia
Cuyamel Fruit was a Honduran
fruit
company founded by Samuel Zemurray in 1910, to export fruit inland from Puerto Cortés
, Honduras
. Zemurray started as a banana
retailer in Mobile, Alabama and moved to Honduras in order to participate in growing and exporting fruit. He acquired 5,000 acres of land along the Cuyamel River to plant bananas.
The company soon controlled the banana business from Puerto Cortés, and became the chief competitor of the United Fruit Company
; at its height, it controlled several steamships and a railroad.
In 1930, Zemurray sold the company to United Fruit (eventually Chiquita Brands International
)
Honduran
Honduran may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to the country of Honduras* Hondurans, persons from Honduras or of Honduran descent. For more information about the Honduran people, see Demographics of Honduras and Culture of Honduras. For specific persons, see List of Hondurans.* Honduran...
fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
company founded by Samuel Zemurray in 1910, to export fruit inland from Puerto Cortés
Puerto Cortés
-Geography:It is on the Caribbean Sea coast, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, at 15.85° N, 87.94° W. It has a natural bay.It is Honduras's main sea port and it is considered the most important seaport in Central America...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. Zemurray started as a banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
retailer in Mobile, Alabama and moved to Honduras in order to participate in growing and exporting fruit. He acquired 5,000 acres of land along the Cuyamel River to plant bananas.
The company soon controlled the banana business from Puerto Cortés, and became the chief competitor of the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
; at its height, it controlled several steamships and a railroad.
In 1930, Zemurray sold the company to United Fruit (eventually Chiquita Brands International
Chiquita Brands International
Chiquita Brands International Inc. is an American producer and distributor of bananas and other produce, under a variety of subsidiary brand names, collectively known as Chiquita. Other brands include Fresh Express salads, which it purchased from Performance Food Group in 2005...
)