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Chiquita merger reignites fears of a disappearing banana crop

Chiquita Brands International, the U.S.-based, global produce company that&rsquo;s perhaps best known for bananas &mdash; as well as for its catchy logo featuring the&nbsp;so-called First Lady of Fruit &mdash; announced Monday that it would acquire Fyffes, its Irish rival. The two companies will become one before the end of 2014, making the new firm, ChiquitaFyffes, into the biggest producer and distributor of bananas in the world, with a collective&nbsp;$4.6 billion in annual revenue.
But sustainability experts worry that the new merger will bolster the banana industry&rsquo;s business model of selling a single variety of banana, which allows producers to better predict ripening time and create economies of scale. And that, they say, increases the possibility that a lethal fungus called&nbsp;Tropical Race 4 &mdash; which has already struck bananas in Asia, Africa and the Middle East &mdash; will destroy the world&rsquo;s banana supply.

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(Photo:&nbsp;Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images)
