Chiquita Reports $8 Million Profit

CINCINNATI - Feb 17/04 - SNS -- Chiquita Brands International, Inc. reported a fourth-quarter net income of $8 million, or $0.19 per share, compared to its $26 million, or $0.66 per share net loss during the same quarter last year.

Net sales for the quarter were $686 million, up $323 million from the fourth quarter of 2002. Atlanta AG ("Atlanta"), a German fresh produce distributor acquired in March 2003, accounted for $260 million of the increase. The remainder resulted from increased sales volume of bananas, pineapples, avocados and melons, and favorable European exchange rates.

Fourth-quarter 2003 net sales for the company's banana segment, which includes bananas marketed by Atlanta, rose 25% to $399 million. Approximately half of the increase resulted from the acquisition of Atlanta.

Fourth-quarter operating income for the company's banana segment was $22 million, compared to an operating loss of $2 million last year on a pro forma basis after adjusting for the accounting change. (The historical operating loss for the segment in the 2002 fourth quarter, not adjusted for the accounting change, was $19 million.) Full year 2003 net sales for the company's banana segment were $1.6 billion, up from $1.3 billion in 2002.

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