Dole

Dole Food Company has announced second-quarter earnings of US$83m, significantly up from US$34m in the same period of 2010.

The world's largest fresh fruit and vegetable producer-marketer reported an 11 per cent surge in fresh fruit sales and a 4 per cent rise in fresh vegetable sales, while packaged food sales climbed 9 per cent.

Revenue rose 10 per cent to US$1.92bn, beating the US$1.82bn consensus figure of analysts recently polled by Thomson-Reuters.

David DeLorenzo, chief executive, advised that the company expected third-quarter earnings would fall year on year as a result of lower banana prices and because of a container settlement it received in the period last year.