Sounds like the answer was: Because their ships have their own cranes and can go to smaller ports in developing countries.

Also

* because Dole imports from the tropics which have a limited concept of seasons, so the ships rarely if ever sit unused (therefore it makes sense to own or lease)

* because Dole moves products from places way outside major shipping lanes and ports, hiring ships would be inconvenient

* even more so because Dole needs refrigerated ships making #2 worse

Your last item is not totally accurate: Refrigerated ships are the ones where the entire vessel is temperature controlled. What Dole needs is lots of power connections ("reefer plugs"). That's uncommon but not the same as a refrigerated ship. Last I knew, other companies partly use reefer ships (bananas in bulk) combined with loading into containers.

The benefit of a big refrigerated vessel is mostly when you have a big company importing ("importers") in huge quantities and then selling it to other companies. A single container is huge, but it is way less than a whole refrigerated vessel. Part of the reason why more bananas have been shipped in reefer containers is due to companies cutting out the importers.

Possibly related episode of 99% Invisible, about the invention & design of temperature controlled containers, to speed or slow the ripening of fruit while in transit so they're in peak condition on arrival:

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/reefer-madness/

Came here to say the same thing. Feel like this guy https://twitter.com/Andrew_Jarvis/status/674028991792070656

That's one of my favorite 99P.I. episodes. Right behind The Sunshine Hotel

Anything I can do to plug that absolutely amazing podcast...

If 1 was true, it would be true for Chiquita.

>A half-century later, its parent company would find that it was no longer economical to own its own ships.

Article mentions ships were sold for debt relief for Chiquita, implying some other issues.

Compare and contrast with BP, an oil company that owns a large fleet of tankers. The BP fleet never has the BP logo showing anywhere lest there be some Exxon Valdez scenario or some hijacking.

With bananas the local wildlife would probably be rather pleased if there was a 'banana spillage'.

Point being that there are other reasons for a ship having company logos on it.

Are they direct holdings or are they kept in a separate subsidiary of Dole? Would be interesting to note if they haul non direct competitor goods, there have to be other fruits and vegetables in the ports they frequent that Dole doesn't sell. Curious if they transport much back

I would be surprised if they were not a separate subsidiary of Dole.

There is usually no reason to have completely unrelated industries (especially when you depend on many companies in said industry to make your primary business function) as part of your main company, especially when, yes, as you stated, the non-related-industry sub-company will usually look for work to optimize its cash flow, ie, to not have idle assets that could be making money instead.

An example we're more use to: Amazon's AWS is a separate company that works for competitors to Amazon's other services (Netflix vs Prime Video, one of the Spotify customers (can't remember which) vs Prime Music, etc.

Dole Ocean Cargo is a separate subsidiary, they transport all manner of things. If you want to ship a car to Ecuador, call Dole.

I thought bananas shouldn't go in the fridge.

Reefers can be set to whatever temperature they need to be at. Here's what a major container line has to say about that: https://www2.nykline.com/liner/cargo_advisory/chill_cargo.ht...

Bottom-line, 13 degrees centigrade is what you're aiming for along with 50 m3/h of airflow (50 cfm in US units.) Airflow because bananas ripen in the presence of ethylene and ripening bananas release ethylene. That's the reason putting bananas in a paper bag ripens them faster.

Interesting, thanks. I'm surprised how many of those are at or near freezing! Or for apples, actually below freezing.

A closed container of organic material would be as hot as an oven.

The real question here is why Dole owns container ships and Chiquita doesn't. What differs Chiquitas needs from Doles?

It seems simply financial engineering - Chiquitas sold the ships, then leased them back on long term contracts, but freed up a bunch of short-term cash

http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/chiquita-completes-sa...

When major players are consolidating (CMA CGM and NOL, Cosco and CSCL) it makes no sense to have a four ship fleet.

Any company could easily accommodate their needs (refer capacity, cranes, etc)even cheaper given the fact that right now the dry and container market is at the lowest point ever.

This is the era to charter a vessel and not own one.

It's just four ships on the West Coast, though. In total, Dole owns 19 vessels: http://www.doleoceancargo.com/vessels.html

>Follow @DoleCargo

I'm amused that the Cargo fleet has it's own twitter account.

It's even funnier that it seems someone hooked up the account to a social game and is playing with it broadcasting their score ;p

Not sure about the US but those containers are great for adaptive use in retail and housing in many parts of Asia.

Never heard of refrigerated containers being used for retail or housing. Got a link?

I don't think they keep the refrigerators. A couple of feed stores around here use containers for storage. Gotta be hotter than hell tossing 50lb bags of cattle feed in one of those things in middle of summer!

They use them in SF and Las Vegas.

http://downtowncontainerpark.com

Del Monte has their own banana ships. I know some of them call port in Galveston.

flexport ~ y-comb

Yes! We Have No Bananas.