Of course, bananas do not grow there, but on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Etoy in the canton of Vaud, is the seat of the world market leader in the trade in this fruit. The history of the banana of the Chiquita 
brand, formerly known as the Union Fruit Company (UFC), began in 1889 in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1954, it became the largest banana company in the world under the name UFC, with a global market share of 33%.
For the Swiss market, the bananas come mainly from Panama and Costa Rica, where a new banana terminal was inaugurated. The fruits are picked green and the containers are kept at 13°C until they reach their offloading point at the port of Vlissingen, the Netherlands, 15 days later. Chiquita has 16,000 refrigerated containers, almost half of them with a controlled atmosphere. Eventually, thanks to the plant hormone ethylene, the bananas take on their sunny color in Europe, with different shades of yellow, depending on the market: "The Dutch prefer yellow, the Swiss green and yellow, and southern Europeans consume them greener," today's President Carlos Lopez Flores tells Swissinfo.ch.
For more information:Chiquita Headquarter Europe
Chiquita Brands International Sàrl
Tuilière 16
1163 Etoy (VD)
Schweiz
Phone: +41 (0)58 272 2000
www.chiquita.com