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I heard that a couple of years ago there were Dole pineapple plantations around the sabana grande area, near the bateyes. Does anyone have any information on this topic and are they still there?
Originally posted by Robert I heard they got up and left a few years ago due to some governmental problems.
I could be wrong...
I heard the same thing, Robert. We were living in Samana at the time and Dole ships were using the government pier at Arroyo Barril between Samana and Sanchez. As I recall, the dispute was at least partly over the boxes used by Dole for shipping its products. They wanted to bring in their own, but the government was insisting they use boxes manufactured in the DR, which were more expensive than bringing them in on their arriving ships.
And behind the government's pressure there was a powerful family that obviously had an interest in them buying boxes in DR (a buen entendedor...). The government kinda won, and Dole definitely lost. Now companies have to buy an X ammount of boxes in DR if local companies have the capacity to provide them the product in the volume/specifications they need.
At the end the Dole people learnt a valuable lesson: lie low, don't choose sides in DR politics, compromise. Or the highway.
There were other issues. Remember Dole has an imperialist mentality from way back when they engineered the annexation of Hawaii. The Boxes were ceertainly an issue and the interests of the two large box factories were at stake.
I was glad to see them go for another reason: Their ships sped into Samaná Bay at 20 knots, and the whales could not get out of the way. They were a serious threat to the whales, and refused all the requests to slow down for just a couple of miles. " OH no, we can't do that! Schedules to keep, old boy!!""
While they did give agricultural work to the bateyes, they were pretty tight fisted if memories serve.
SO, the primary workers they used were individuals in the bateyes, so Haitians and Dominico-Haitians primarily?
Hillbilly, do you care to expand on the phrase "tight fisted"? It is an interesting topic in general because I usually only here about the sugar industry and coffee.
Were also involved in many discrimination and abuse cases with its employees in countries like Honduras. Chiquita finally went down the tubes. Dole is still doling out more pain in the plantation fields. They still buy our pineapples.
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Dole Pineapple Plantations
Dole and Chiquita
