Dole Food Company has announced that it turned in a loss from continuing operations of US$47m (£29.77) through the third quarter of the year, a slight improvement on the US$49m recorded in the same period of 2010.
Comparable income from continuing operations was a loss of US$15m for the three-month period, down from the US$3m income last year.
Revenues for the quarter actually grew 5 per cent, up to US$2.09bn from US$1.99bn on a yearly basis, with fresh fruit revenues up 5 per cent primarily as a result of higher banana volumes sold in North America and Asia.
Dole noted that revenue was also bolstered by favourable currency exchange movements in Europe and Japan, while packaged foods (up 9 per cent) and fresh vegetables also saw growth.
However, an improved performance in packaged salads was more than offset by lower operating results in fresh-packed vegetables, particularly impacted by weak pricing in iceberg lettuce.
"Following very strong earnings in the first half of this year, we encountered a challenging market in Europe in the third quarter, as anticipated," said David DeLorenzo, president and CEO at Dole. "Given the positive results of the efficiency and cost measures we took last year, we are implementing additional restructuring initiatives focused on further improving our European profitability in 2012.
"Our packaged salads business continued to improve in the quarter, however weaker performance in fresh-packed vegetables due primarily to lower iceberg lettuce pricing, impacted the results," he added. "Our packaged foods segment performed well as higher prices offset rising costs. We also launched several exciting new frozen fruit products in the quarter, including Fruit Smoothie Shakers and Frozen Fruit Single-serve Cups."
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