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Stanfilco History

Dole Philippines, Inc.

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About Stanfilco

Updated by:

JP Mercado
Sept. 12, 1999

In 1966, Dole Philippines pioneered the country's banana industry with the establishment of, STANFILCO.


STANFILCO started exporting giant cavendish bananas in 1968, setting a record as the Philippines' first banana exporter.

STANFILCO traces its earliest beginnings to a firm established in New Orleans. Then known as the Vaccaro Brothers and Company, it added shipping to its banana importing business and consequently changed its name to Standard Fruit and Steamship Company.

Dole Food Company bought 55 percent of Standard Fruit in October 1964, and fully acquired the company four years later.

General Santos was chosen as the first site of the Philippine banana project. Banana seeds from Honduras and Costa Rica arrived in General Santos on September 2, 1966. These seeds were planted on a 73-hectare lot which served as the nucleus of the project.

In 1967, the germinated seeds were distributed to the farmers for commercial planting. On November 2, 1968, Stanfilco's maiden shipment of 4,138 boxes was made.

Following the success in General Santos, the company expanded to the hinterlands of North Davao.
First planting in Davao was in April of 1969, on 81 hectares in Manay and Mabuhay, two farms located in Stanfilco's Panabo Zone as it is called at present.

Expansions continued immediately after in Luna Zone.

At the onset of the 90's, rapid expansions were made in the presently called Compostela, Tanglaw, Osmiguel, MZ Morillo Valley Zones, Skyland, Calinan, Malandag.

Following all these expansions, STANFILCO now covers over 10,000 hectares of banana plantation and exports over 34 million boxes of bananas annually to its markets in Japan, Korea, Hongkong, China, New Zealand and the Middle East.

In the Philippines, STANFILCO pioneered the effective implementation of the Independent Growers Program - a unique farming concept that allows local farmers to grow bananas for STANFILCO while retaining full control of their land and operations.

Over the years, 4,000 growers and nearly 10,000 associate contractors have partnered up with STANFILCO under this program.

STANFILCO also proudly counts itself as one of the few companies who pioneered the introduction and implementation of Total Quality Management or TQM in the agro-industrial sector of the Philippines.

Having helped bring Dole bananas to dominance in the Philippines and the markets abroad, STANFILCO looks forward to spending many more years in the apex of the banana industry through continued improvement and quality.