How to grow a good name on green bananas Sara Silver
Chiquita Brands International, the US fruit company which produces a quarter of the world's bananas, has one of the more unusual corporate responsibility strategies.
While other companies promote their own successes, Cincinnati-basedChiquita lets a non-governmental organisation do it instead: the Rainforest Alliance. Investors seeking environmental information in Sustaining Success its latest online report are directed to a verification statement from the alliance, which has overseen so-called “green certification” of the company's 115 farms in Latin America for more than a decade.
“Some Chiquita farms in Colombia and Costa Rica did not demonstrate the progress we [had] expected, and three farms in Honduras were decertified after an audit uncovered two major non-conformances,” writes Tensie Whelan, director of the Rainforest Alliance, a New York-based conservation group dedicated to protecting ecosystems via better business practices. “These conditions were corrected and the farms were recertified before year's end.”
Such scrutiny is one sign that Chiquita's collaboration with the environmental NGO is remarkable especially given the company's history.
An outgrowth of the United Fruit Company which for years influenced the politics of Central America, giving rise to the phrase “banana republics” Chiquita has engineered an about-turn in the way it does business. Patricia Scharlin and Gary Taylor, authors of a book on Chiquita's change of course*, say the move was a “spectacular transformation”.
But it remains questionable whether Chiquita whose distinctive oval seal features a woman carrying a basket of fruit on her head will profit from taking the high road. “You would think that any investor interested in strong future cash flows would be interested in social responsibility, in terms of the company's abilities to meet the long-term needs of their customers,” says Jeff Zalla, Chiquita's corporate responsibility officer and treasurer.
There are signs that the company's transformation is now bearing profit. The $20m (￡10.6m) spent to bring its farms up to the Rainforest Alliance standards has already been more than repaid in cost savings $5m each year because of reduced expenses on pesticides and $3m each year because of the recycling of wooden pallets used to transport the fruit. Also, the company's lower risk profile has enabled it to refinance some debt, which will save it $7m in annual interest payments.
As yet, there are no marketing plans based on its transformation. “Our philosophy has been to earn credibility and trust, rather than proclaim it ourselves,” says Michael Mitchell, Chiquita's communications director.
Yet the company is aware of the potential and is examining ways to capitalise on its green credentials. In the global supermarket industry, bananas account for more sales and contribute more to profit margins than any other product.
Whether or not it pays off in terms of profits, Chiquita is pushing ahead with its green agenda, encouraging its independent suppliers to become certified. Now, 79 per cent of the bananas Chiquita purchases from independent growers are certified by the Rainforest Alliance up from 33 per cent just two years ago.
There is also no turning back for the Rainforest Alliance. It has faced criticism from other NGOs, who claim that it has sold out by allowing Chiquita to use pesticides and by certifying labour practices when it had no expertise to do so. But the alliance has not been deterred, and it is moving from bananas to coffee signing a similar agreement with Kraft Foods.
Ms Whelan, the Alliance's director, is clear about the central achievement of the partnership with Chiquita: “It shows the real cost to people and the environment that goes into something as simple as a banana.”
*Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand (Yale University Press)
绿色香蕉种出好名声
美国水果公司“奇基塔牌国际公司”(Chiquita Brands International)生产全球四分之一的香蕉，该公司有一项颇为不寻常的企业责任战略。
其它公司宣传自己如何成功，而总部位于辛辛那提的奇基塔公司让非政府组织“雨林联盟”(Rainforest Alliance)来代它做这件事。如果投资者到公司最新的网上报告《可持续成功》(Sustaining Success)中搜寻环保信息，就会被引到雨林联盟发布的一份确认声明。10多年来，该联盟一直对奇基塔公司在拉美115个农场进行所谓的“绿色认证”。
“奇基塔有一些在哥伦比亚和哥斯达黎加的农场未表现出取得了我们先前预期的进步，而位于洪都拉斯的三家农场在审计中暴露出两处重大的不合规情况，因而被吊销证书，”雨林联盟总干事坦西?惠兰(Tensie Whelan)写道，“这些情况已得到纠正，那些农场在年底前已重新获得认证。”雨林联盟是总部位于纽约的一个环保团体，致力于通过改进企业开展业务的方式来保护生态系统。
这种详细审查是一个迹象，表明奇基塔与环保领域的非政府组织(NGO)之间的合作引人注目，特别是考虑到该公司的历史。
奇基塔的前身是联合水果公司(United Fruit Company)，该公司曾长年影响中美洲政治，“香蕉共和国”的说法就由此而生。如今，奇基塔已彻底改变了其开展业务的方式。有关奇基塔改变路线一书*的作者帕特丽夏?谢林(Patricia Scharlin)和加里?泰勒(Gary Taylor)说，此举是“壮观的转变”。
但奇基塔能否从走高格调路线中获利还是个疑问。“你会认为，就企业满足客户长期需求的能力而言，只要投资者对强劲的未来现金流感兴趣，就会关注社会责任，”奇基塔的企业责任主管兼财务总管杰夫?萨利亚(Jeff Zalla)表示。奇基塔有个与众不同的椭圆形印戳，上面是位妇女头顶一篮水果。
有迹象表明，公司的转变正带来利润。为使农场达到雨林联盟的标准，公司花费了2000万美元，但这笔花费已获得更高的回报：杀虫剂开支的减少令公司每年节约成本500万美元，而运输水果的木制货盘可循环利用，令公司每年节省300万美元。此外，由于公司风险特性降低，令它得以对一些债务进行再融资，因而节省700万美元的年息支付。
迄今为止，还没有基于公司转变的市场营销计划。“我们的哲学是赢得信誉和人们的信赖，而不是自我宣扬，”奇基塔的公关主管迈克尔?米切尔(Michael Mitchel)表示。
然而，公司意识到这其中的潜力，并开始研究利用其绿色证书的方法。在全球超市行业，与任何其它产品相比，香蕉占销售的比例最大，对利润率的贡献也最大。
无论最终能否盈利，奇基塔都在推进其绿色议程，鼓励其独立供应商也接受认证。现在，在奇基塔从独立种植商那里收购的香蕉中，有79%获得了雨林联盟的认证，而两年前还只有33%。
雨林联盟也没有退路。它已遭到其它非政府组织的批评，称雨林联盟出卖了自己，因为它允许奇基塔使用杀虫剂，并在没有专业技能的情况下为劳动力雇佣做法提供认证。但该联盟没有却步，还从香蕉转向咖啡，与卡夫食品(Kraft Foods)签定了一份类似的协议。
联盟总干事惠兰女士非常清楚与奇基塔结盟的核心成就：“香蕉虽简单，却可以看出人类和环境付出的真正代价。”
*《智能联盟：一家全球性公司和环保活跃分子如何转变一个受玷污的品牌》(耶鲁大学出版社)。
