DOLE REPORTS ON HURRICANE LOSS.

Dole Food Co., whose Central American plantations were devastated by Hurricane Mitch, said it would take a US$100 million charge due to storm damage in the fourth quarter, reports CANA-Reuters (December 16, 1998). The charge will be greater than the fruit and vegetable producer (based in Westlake Village, Calif.) expected, although fewer crops were affected than originally thought:

Chief financial officer John Tate said the revised estimates came after the floodwaters receded and Dole was able to go in and survey the crops from the land. Previous estimates were taken by helicopter. Mitch, the deadliest storm in the Atlantic in over two centuries, ravaged more than 30,000 acres of Dole crops, about 20% of the total; The crops were mainly bananas, but included sugar cane and African palm and there was light damage to pineapple crops, Tate said. The storm affected 12% to 15% of Dole's banana crops, which typically represent 30% to 35% of total sales, he added. Dole had US$4.3 billion in total sales in 1997; Dole said it will lose money in the fourth-quarter before taking the charge into account. The loss will range from US$3 million to US$6 million, or 5 to 10 cents a share, Dole said, compared with a 13% operating profit expected by analysts. Dole said it will rehabilitate most of the destroyed plantations over the next two years; On the other hand, experts have said that Honduras and Nicaragua will take a generation to recover from Mitch's devastation. Hurricane Mitch began a weeklong siege on the area including Honduras and Nicaragua, culminating in a death toll estimated as high as 7,000, with as much as 70% of Nicaragua's crops destroyed.