Dole bananas

Dole Food Company and Compagnie Fruitière Group announced this week that Dole had sold its minority interest in Compagnie Financiere de Participations, the holding company of Compagnie Fruitière Group, back to its majority shareholder.

Dole and Compagnie Fruitière have jointly decided that they will more effectively be able to pursue their growth objectives separately in the future.

'This transaction puts an end to 21 years of a long and fruitful co-operation,' the joint statement read, although it refused to rule out future co-operation.

'The termination of the partnership at shareholder level does not exclude that both companies may continue to co-operate commercially as supplier or customer to each other if, when and where it would be to their mutual benefit,' it stated.