Which brothers founded the Standard Fruit Company?

The Vaccaro brothers founded the Standard Fruit Company. Joseph, Luca, and Felix Vaccaro were Italian-American businessmen whose family fruit-importing business operated from New Orleans and traded with Central America.

The brothers’ earlier company, Vaccaro Bros. and Company, expanded into Honduras after beginning banana imports from La Ceiba in 1899. The business also supplied ice for refrigerated steamships, an important advantage when transporting bananas over long distances. In 1924, it was renamed the Standard Fruit Company; two years later, it became the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company.

Standard Fruit was a major rival to United Fruit in the Central American banana trade. Its operations helped make Honduras part of the “banana republic” story, in which powerful foreign fruit companies exercised enormous economic and political influence. Standard Fruit was later acquired by Castle & Cooke, whose food operations eventually became associated with Dole.

A common mix-up is confusing the Vaccaro brothers with the Dole name. Dole was not the company’s original founder: the Vaccaros’ enterprise became part of the corporate lineage that later led to Dole Food Company.