During the first half of the 1940s, United Fruit faced many challenges as a result of the continued spread of the fungal disease, Sigatoka and the American entrance into World War II.
In the 1940s Sigatoka continued to ravage banana plantations throughout Central and Southern America. United Fruit was forced to abandon thousands of acres of plantations and even turned to creating “flood fallows” in an effort to drown the deadly fungus. This was done by creating shallow artificial lake beds over infected plantation lands. These lake beds were flooded with water for up to eighteen months to effectively drown and kill the fungus. After the beds were drained, workers were able to re-plant healthy Gros Michel rhizomes.1
In 1941, Sigatoka was reported to have spread to the Colombian region of Magdalena. Here it dramatically swept through numerous banana plantations and wreaked such havoc that the local Colombian government had to intervene. It was during this year that the national Colombian government and the United Fruit Company signed a contract in order to fight the fungal disease together. However, in the same year, German submarines were spotted off the coast of the Caribbean and, as a result, United Fruit officially halted all banana exports from the Magdalena region.2
During the years 1941-1944, a dramatic decrease in overall banana exportation in the banana trade was seen due to war-related exportation/importation restrictions. Not only did United Fruit suffer, but competing companies such as Standard Fruit also suffered major 10-15 percent annual losses in revenue.3
1942 was a year where United Fruit suffered greatly from the effects of World War II in Colombia. During the 1930s, United Fruit had established a solid monopoly over the banana trade in northeastern Colombia. However, due to a contractual agreement that said all business obligations would be cancelled in the event of a conflict or war, United Fruit’s intercontinental shipments of bananas were ceased, during this time.4
Samuel Zemurray, President of United Fruit, is noted, in 1942, for establishing the School for Panamerican Agriculture in Honduras. The school was financed by United Fruit and its goal was to provide a free higher-education level institution specializing in agricultural studies and research. The intended attendees were to be Central American students.5
United Fruit was struggling due to World War II and the fungal disease.The effects could be widely seen across most of South America including Costa Rica. In 1943, the combination of these effects meant no banana ships docked in Port Limon, which proved to be a major setback financially for the banana company. However, after 1943, exports did resume, but stayed at mid-19th century levels and did not see any substantial increases until the 1950s.6 United Fruit took another hit in the same year when Costa Rica initiated a protective labor rights’ code that established the rights of Costa Rican multinational corporation workers. This code allowed for workers to organize and strike. A similar code was adopted by Nicaragua in 1945.7
Starting in 1944, the next ten years would be quite difficult for United Fruit in Guatemala. From 1944-1954, during the Guatemalan Revolution, United Fruit’s business endeavors were at risk of being expropriated. UFCO faced attempts to expropriate and invasions by Guatemalan peasants during this time.8
It was not all lost for the banana multinational company, preparing for post-war advertising, United Fruit hired cartoonist Dik Browne to create the infamous cartoon that would later become the face of the company during the latter half of the 20th century, Miss Chiquita Banana. The cartoon was based off of South American singer, dancer and film star Carmen Miranda. Miranda exuded exoticism which proved to appeal to the American public during this time.9
In 1945, United Fruit met yet another obstacle when Juan Jose Arevalo took office as president of Guatemala. He immediately began to democratize the nation starting with multinational companies doing business in the country. It was noted that during this time, the majority of Guatemalan workers were employed by foreign MNCs. More specifically, United Fruit had upwards of 40,000 Guatemalan laborers both directly and indirectly relying on its business, railroad and other subsidiaries.10 Arevalo’s plan was to “restrain” those US corporations that were dominating the Guatemalan economy, but was met with much backlash and critique for his “nationalist” attitude.11
Works Cited
Aldama, F., 2018. Comics Studies Here And Now. 1st ed. Routledge.
Bucheli, Marcelo. “Enforcing Business Contracts in South America: The United Fruit Company and Colombian Banana Planters in the Twentieth Century.” The Business History Review78, no. 2 (2004): 181-212. Accessed April 5, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25096865.
Gleijeses, Piero. “Juan Jose Arevalo and the Caribbean Legion.” Journal of Latin American Studies 21, no. 1 (1989): 133-45. Accessed April 4, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/157252.
Harpelle, Ronald N. “Racism and Nationalism in the Creation of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast Banana Enclave.” The Americas 56, no. 3 (2000): 29-51. Accessed April 4, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1007587.
Rose, Susan O. “THE UNITED FRUIT COMPANY IN TIQUISATE, GUATEMALA.” Publication Series (Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers) 6 (1977): 105-10. Accessed April 5, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25765587.
Soluri, John. “Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease.” Environmental History 7, no. 3 (2002): 386-410. Accessed April 5 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/3985915.
Southgate, Douglas, and Lois Roberts. “The Octopus.” In Globalized Fruit, Local Entrepreneurs: How One Banana-Exporting Country Achieved Worldwide Reach, 7-19. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Accessed April 4, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1b3h9v9.6.
[TAYLOR, J. GARY, and PATRICIA J. SCHARLIN. “Why Bananas and Why Chiquita?” In Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand, 58-71. Yale University Press, 2004. Accessed April 4, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vkv7r.10.
Unitedfruit.org. 2001. United Fruit Company – Chronology. [online] Available at: <http://www.unitedfruit.org/chron.htm> [Accessed 5 April 2020].
1Soluri, John. “Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease.” (Page 400)
2Enforcing Business Contracts in South America: The United Fruit Company and Colombian Banana Planters in the Twentieth Century.” (Page 196)
3Soluri, John. “Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease.” (Page 399)
4Southgate, Douglas, and Lois Roberts. “Never a Banana Republic.” In Globalized Fruit, Local Entrepreneurs: How One Banana-Exporting Country Achieved Worldwide Reach (Page 50)
5Unitedfruit.org. 2001. United Fruit Company – Chronology.
6Harpelle, Ronald N. “Racism and Nationalism in the Creation of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast Banana Enclave.” (Page 32)
7The Octopus.” In Globalized Fruit, Local Entrepreneurs: How One Banana-Exporting Country Achieved Worldwide Reach (Page 17)
8Rose, Susan O. “THE UNITED FRUIT COMPANY IN TIQUISATE, GUATEMALA.” (Page 110)
9(Aldama, 2018)
10TAYLOR, J. GARY, and PATRICIA J. SCHARLIN. “Why Bananas and Why Chiquita?” In Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand (Page 68)
11Gleijeses, Piero. “Juan Jose Arevalo and the Caribbean Legion.” Journal of Latin American Studies. (Page 133)
