Dole’s 1st-Quarter Net Drops 44% to $29.7 Million

Dole Food Co., a Westlake Village food and real estate concern, reported that its first-quarter net income dropped 44% from a year-earlier period.

In the three months ended March 26, Dole earned $29.7 million, in contrast with a $53.3-million profit in the first quarter of 1993. But a year earlier it had a $30.9-million one-time gain from its real estate subsidiary’s stock sale. Its revenue in the latest quarter rose 7%, to $818.8 million from $766.5 million.

The company said that the market for bananas, one of its biggest products, improved in the first quarter as it continued to reduce its costs, but lower prices for lettuce, celery and canned pineapple and concentrate reduced its overall results.