DOLE'S THIRD-QUARTER EARNINGS SINK 36% DUE TO BANANA GLUT.Byline: Stacy Roth Bloomberg News Dole Food Co., the world's top seller of fresh fruits and vegetables, said fiscal third-quarter earnings fell 36 percent because of a drop in banana banana, name for several species of the genus Musa and for the fruits these produce. The banana plant—one of the largest herbaceous plants—is said to be native to tropical Asia, but is now cultivated throughout the tropics. prices and because many Russians can't afford them. Net income fell to $15.6 million, or 26 cents a share, from $24.4 million, or 40 cents, a year ago. The earnings matched the recently lowered average estimate of five analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Dole shares rose $1.875 to $34.0625. The Westlake Village-based company warned last month that earnings would fall short of expectations by as much as 35 percent, prompting analysts to lower their quarterly estimates. Dole said bad weather stemming from El Nino, which included heavy rain in certain areas and extreme dryness in others, led to a bumper crop In agriculture, a bumper crop refers to a particularly good harvest yielded for a particular crop. Example: "With all the rain we've had over the last few months, we are expecting a bumper crop this year. of bananas ba·nan·as adj. Slang Crazy: "That's the horrible thing when you're bananas . Banana prices in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. have fallen 17 percent since last year. At the same time, banana consumption in Russia has dropped because of the country's economic problems, which has reduced importers' ability there to purchase the fruit. Revenue rose 2.6 percent to $1.21 billion for the quarter ended Oct. 10, from $1.18 billion a year ago. Earlier this week, Dole said it expects to take fourth-quarter charges of about $50 million to $70 million for damage to its Central American Central America A region of southern North America extending from the southern border of Mexico to the northern border of Colombia. It separates the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean and is linked to South America by the Isthmus of Panama. crops caused by Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch was one of the deadliest and most powerful hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (290 km/h). The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic . Dole has about 40,000 acres of bananas in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, as well as sugar and palm oil production. |
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