Countries in Eastern Bloc Find Chiquita Bananas Very A-Peeling

The Eastern bloc countries are going bananas over Chiquita.

“When the Berlin Wall went down, that opened the way for Chiquita in East Germany,” said Sandra Heimann, spokeswoman for United Brands, Cincinnati-based parent of Chiquita Brands Inc. Some of the East Germans had never even seen a banana before, Heimann said. “They go crazy over them.”

Spurred by the booming market, the 25-person transportation division of Chiquita is moving to Antwerp, Belgium, to provide better logistics for the distribution of bananas and other fresh fruit in Europe.

Europe has been a major market for Chiquita, the largest banana distributor on the continent, even before the opening of the Eastern bloc countries. One Western Europe importer of bananas has been a major customer, distributing about 7% of the bananas sold by Chiquita.

“We started selling bananas to the Russians in the Soviet Union last year,” Heimann said.

Sales of bananas and other fruits in the Eastern bloc market are not substantial yet, but United Brands is looking forward to exploiting the potential, one that can be realized without large start-up costs.

United Brands is a subsidiary of American Financial Corp.