Dole Food reports Q3 loss

Dole Food, a US-based producer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables, has reported that its continuing operational loss has slowed to $47m in the third quarter that ended 8 October 2011, compared with $53m in the same period the previous year.

Revenues rose 5% to $2.1bn in the quarter.

Fresh fruit sales increased 5%, mostly due to higher banana volumes sold in North America and Asia, while packaged foods sales rose 9%, primarily due to higher sales across all major product segments.

Fresh vegetables sales showed a marginal increase of 0.3%, due to improved pricing of packaged salads, which was partially offset by a dip in iceberg lettuce sales.

Dole’s president and CEO David A DeLorenzo said that, following very strong earnings in the first half of this year, the company encountered anticipated that they would face a challenging market in Europe in the third quarter.

"Given the positive results of the efficiency and cost measures we took last year, we are implementing additional restructuring initiatives focused on further improving our European profitability in 2012," DeLorenzo said.