Question

Please do your own research on Chiquita, the successor to the United Fruit Company. After an extensive research and reading about the history of the company, you should be able to answer the following question.

Why Chiquita is taking social responsibility as its top priority.

Answer 1

Chiquita started an ambitious review of her work in the early 1990s so that she could transform from a multinational that did not take into account the social and environmental effects of her operations to an association of "people" with a thorough dedication to its stakeholders. Notwithstanding the subsequent global strategy and policy on CSR, Chiquita has scarcely gained. Neither retailers nor customers or shareholders seem to have recognized the merits of this transition to becoming a highly engaged corporation that behaves as a good business citizen.

The fact that Chiquita has in recent years been in financial difficulty has obviously limited the scope of her future CSR. The organization has had to continually tackle the problem of managing to do well while not doing well. Chiquita has never lost her trust in the strategic value of its CSR program, given its financial problems. The divisive history of Chiquita and the controversy over her payments to militant groups in Colombia continue to haunt the organization and undermine the credibility of CSR efforts.

Chiquita has made significant efforts and spent a great deal of time protecting her social and environmental responsibility by anchoring her within her teams to everyday and routine procedures, and transforming her CSR agenda into an integral part of her corporate culture. Nonetheless, the feasibility of this approach will be illustrated in the long term by its longevity and one can not help but wonder if the Cutrale company, Chiquita's new owners, and one of the world leaders in orange production will continue Chiquita's CSR commitment begun more than 20 years ago.