Dole signs green deal for Costa Rica production

Dole signs green deal for Costa Rica production    While bananas and pineapples are best eaten when golden yellow, producing them is best done green, according to plans announced Thursday by one of the world's largest produce growers.
   Dole Foods Co. said its Costa Rican subsidiary, Standard Fruit de Costa Rica, has signed an agreement with Fondo Nacional de Financiamento Forestal, the National Forestry Financing Fund and an entity of the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica, to work together on a project aimed at establishing a carbon neutral product supply chain for bananas and pineapples.
   'Carbon neutral,' means that the carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — emitted to produce, pack, transport and distribute the fruit will be offset by mitigation practices that increase the capture of CO2 in order to achieve a 'neutral' balance. According to Dole, these practices entail new, more efficient transportation methods, changes to agricultural processes to reduce CO2 emissions, and partnering with local farmers to implement preservation and reforestation programs.
   “Dole is such an important company in the production of bananas and pineapples on a global level that we are very enthusiastic that Standard Fruit made the decision to strive to become a carbon neutral company here in Costa Rica and join our efforts to become the first carbon neutral country in the world by 2021,' said Roberto Dobles, Costa Rica's Minister of the Environment and Energy.
   'I hope that this initiative will be followed by others in the private sector, so that we may unite efforts in favor of the environment,” Dobles said.
   Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole Foods, with 2006 revenues of $6.2 billion, is the world’s largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and fresh-cut flowers.