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Strengths

1) In 1992, the Rainforest Alliance, a group that worked closely with logging companiesto minimize harm to rainforests, sent its environmental and worker rights standards

to banana companies around the world. Chiquita took the standards to heart and is

now ranked as number one among producers in terms of its corporate responsibility.Among the changes Chiquita made are as follows:

It recycles 100 percent of the plastic bags and twines used on its farms.

It provided protective gear for its workers using pesticides.

It cut pesticide use by 26 percent.

It improved working conditions for plantation workers.

It provided housing for workers.

It provided schools for employees families.

It purchased buffer zones around plantations in order to prevent chemical runoff.

All 110 Chiquita farms are certified by the alliance.

Chiquita notes that its pesticide costs are down and productivity among workers is

up

27 percent.

Chiquita was able to put these sustainability issues behind it and earn the

respect of human rights and environmental groups.

2)

Weaknesses

1) Chiquita Banana has been known for its poor labor and farming practices in

other countries

2) Between 1997 and 2004, executives in Chiquita operations in Colombia paid$1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC, named forits initials in Spanish). The U.S. government designated the right-wing militia aterrorist organization in September 2001.4 The payments were made througha Chiquita wholly owned subsidiary known as Banadex, the companys mostprofitable unit by 2003. The payments began in 1997 following a meeting

between the then-leader of the AUC, Carlos Castao, and a senior executiveof Banadex. Chiquita recorded these payments in its financial reports andother records as security payments or payments forsecurity orsecurityservices. Chiquita never received any actual security services in exchangefor the payments.Chiquita began paying the AUC in cash according to new proceduresestablished by senior executives of Chiquita. These new proceduresconcealed direct cash payments to the AUC. However, a senior Chiquitaofficer had described these new procedures to Chiquitas Audit Committee onApril 23, 2002. These procedures were implemented well after the U.S.government designated the AUC as a terrorist organization on September 10,

2001. Under federal law, once an organization is designated by the U.S.government as a terrorist organization, companies cannot continue to do

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business with them because such restrictions were a means of curbingfunding to and money laundering by terrorist groups. Nonetheless, fromSeptember 10, 2001, through February 4, 2004, Chiquita made fifty paymentsto the AUC totalling over $825,000 of the total $1.7 million paid from 1997through 2004

Opportunities

Threats

Ethics in marketing point

Sales and Marketingdeclaration regarding fair treatment and fair pay to the employees, beingfair and

transparent about the environmental risks,the ethical issues of product or service transparency (being transparentabout theingredients used in the product/service use of genetically modified organisms, content, 'source code' in the caseofsoftware), appropriate labelling, the ethics of declaration of the risks inusing the product/service (health risks, financial risks, security risks, etc.),product/service safety and liability,respect for stakeholder privacy and autonomy,the issues of outsmarting rival business through unethical business

tacticsetc.,advertising truthfulness and honesty, fairness in pricing & distribution,and forthrightness in selling, etc., are few among the issues debatedamong peopleconcerned about ethics of marketing practice.

MarketingEthics of Sales and MarketingMarketing Ethics is a subset of business ethics.Ethics in marketing deals with the principles, valuesand/or ideals by which marketers (and marketing

institutions) ought to act. Marketing ethics too, like itsparent discipline, is a contested terrain. Discussionsof marketing ethics are focused around two majorconcerns: one is the concern from politicalphilosophy and the other is from the transactionfocusedbusiness practice.On the one side, following ideologists like MiltonFriedman and Ayn Rand, it is argued that the onlyethics in marketing is maximizing profit for theshareholder.

Pricing: price fixing, price discrimination, price skimming.Anti-competitive practices: these include but go beyond

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pricing tactics to cover issues such as manipulation of loyaltyand supply chains. See: anti-competitive practices, antitrustlaw.

MARKETING ETHICS also deals with how products are delivered to customersBusiness Ethics, an

Indian perspective, AC Fernando

--Chiquita bananas main marketing ad ( is a cartoon with a banana singing the nutrient benefits of

bananas ) . But , the Chiquita banana plantations use toxic fertilisers and pesticides which can pose a

health hazard.

- working conditions human rights violations-paid money to AUC

- Environmental risks

- Promoting an ordinary product as a luxury one.

- Distribution transport in refrigerated ships. Ripened en route.