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Founders and Early History

The origins of the Standard Fruit Company lie in the winter storm of 1899, when temperatures in New Orleans fell as low as -7 degrees Fahrenheit. The storm decimated crop yields, and left many farmers with little to sell. Some of the most severely impacted crops were citrus fruits. Historically, the delta country of New Orleans provided work for immigrants from southern Europe who had experience in the citrus industry, and it was here that many Sicilian immigrants such as the founders of the Standard Fruit Company, Joseph, Luca, and Felix Vaccaro, and Salvador D’Antoni, prospered.

For the Vaccaro brothers, produce was a family trade. Having learned the business from their father, they were responsible for supplying domestic produce to the New Orleans area. It was in this capacity they met their future business partner, Salvador D’Antoni. D’Antoni owned and operated a produce stand in the town of Burtville outside of Baton Rouge, and Joseph Vaccaro was one of his suppliers. This association proved fruitful for D’Antoni because in 1897, the Mississippi River flooded, broke the levee, and submerged the town of Burtville and his store under water. With no business left to run, D’Antoni moved to New Orleans and began working with Joseph Vaccaro.

With the area’s domestic fruit supply all but destroyed from the storm, the four Sicilians entered into the fruit import trade under the business name of Vaccaro Brothers and Company. The four chose to import their foreign fruit supply from Honduras and the Bay Islands due to the fertility of the land and their proximity to the ports of New Orleans. While bananas would eventually become the focus of the company, the fruit initially factored little into the equation. Instead, the primary export for the company was coconuts, followed by oranges as a close second. Citrus was a familiar field to the Vaccaro brothers, and with the majority of the domestic supply destroyed by the storm, there was a healthy market for them in New Orleans. However, the brothers wanted to expand the business into bananas, but to do that, they would need a steamship to ensure the bananas arrived on time to New Orleans. So, in 1900, Joseph Vaccaro purchased the business’s first steam ship, the Premier, to compete with the United Fruit Company’s “Southern Fleet” of 36 steamers.

As the company grew, the brothers and D’Antoni incorporated the company twice before it became the Standard Fruit Company. The first incorporation was done to keep pace with the growing complexities of the business, as they began to deal more and more with the governments of Honduras and the United States. On January 15, 1906, the partners incorporated in Louisiana under the name of the Vaccaro Brothers and Company of Louisiana. However, as the business and their dreams of expansion grew, they needed to incorporate a second time in order to offer their stock to the public, so in 1923, the four incorporated again, this time in Delaware under the name: Standard Fruit and Steamship Company of Delaware.

Competitors

The main goal during Standard Fruit’s start up efforts was to control means of shipping in and out of Honduras. This involved negotiating with steam ship companies and purchasing them. Aside from the Vaccaro Brothers and Company, the other major company competing for control of the Honduras banana market was a firm called “Hubbard-Zemurray Steam Ship Company.”

The Vaccaro Brothers and Hubbard-Zemurray were both relatively minor companies in Latin America in comparison to the United Fruit Company, who had much greater control and influence in the banana export market. However, before United Fruit entered Honduras as a direct producer in 1910, the firm participated in the Honduras market by proxy through investments in both Zemurray’s and Vaccaro Brothers’ companies. At this time, United owned 60% of Cuyamel and 50% of Vaccaro, before developing plantations of its own in the cities of Trujillo and Tela. The three companies maintained organized, cooperative efforts despite being competitors and worked together in advertising and increasing banana agricultural outputs in Honduras.

Standard Fruit played a significant role in the “banana republics”, the name given to the governments of Honduras and other Central American countries because of the highly favorable treatment the fruit companies were given. In 1910, the administration of President Miguel R. Davila granted the Vaccaro Brothers’ Company land for railroad construction and prohibited competitors from building a competing railroad within 20 kilometers of the Vaccaro line. This upper hand in production and shipment allowed for Standard Fruit to absorb smaller competitors. It also led to discord between the three major companies at the time, including United Fruit and Cuyamel.

In 1906, United Fruit Co. purchased a half share in the Atlantic Fruit Company, another competitor. However, it was later forced to sell it due to the laws placed in support of Standard Fruit. In 1923, Di Giorgio entered into partnership with the Vaccaro Bros and formed the Mexican American Fruit & Steamship Co. In 1927 the company name was changed to American Fruit & SS Co. and in 1932 Di Giorgio sold out to Standard Fruit Co.

Company Name

 In 1899, in response to a particularly bad growing season for citrus fruits, Joseph, Felix and Luca Vaccaro, along with their brother-in-law Salvador D'Antoni began importing coconuts from Honduras, then later bananas. Over the next few years they became increasingly involved with each aspect of banana import, cultivation and transportation, incorporating under the name Vaccaro Bros. and Co. in 1906.  

The company expanded to ownership of lumberyards, plantations and railroads beyond Honduras, and to buying from producers in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti, and Ecuador.  While the Vaccaro Brothers were exporting bananas from Central America, Joseph DiGiorgio of New York, developed a banana export business in Cuba, also with a fleet of steamships. In 1923, DiGiorgio and the Vaccaro Brothers joined together to create the short-lived Mexican-American Fruit and Steamship Company which did not include the Vaccaro’s Honduran businesses.  

In 1924, the remaining pieces of Vaccaro Bros. and Co., as well as any other business not belonging to Mexican-American Fruit, were combined to create the Standard Fruit Company.  In 1925 Joseph DiGiorgio sold a major portion of his Mexican-American stock to the Canal Bank.  Washington Irving Moss of Canal Bank, looking to express the diversity of services and branch into new markets following WWI, made a public offering of the newly formed Standard Fruit and Steamship Company in 1926.  Standard Fruit and Steamship Corporation was composed of: Standard Fruit Company and Mexican-American Fruit as well as Canal Bank’s previously held Bragman's Bluff Lumber Company, Standard Navigation Company, Bluefields Lumber Company, Eastern Seaboard Corporation, and Southern Banana Corporation.  The conglomerate remained Vaccaro family operated under that name for another three decades until the Hawaii based agricultural investment firm, Castle & Cooke Corporation, acquired it in 1964.

Castle & Cooke Co. also owned James Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company and by 1972 all of Standard Fruit and Steamship had been absorbed under the Dole label.  Dole grew to become the largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world.  In 1991, Castle & Cooke itself was renamed Dole Food Company.  Dole Food Company has been privately owned by former Castle & Cooke chairman, David Murdock, since 2003.