Japanese general trading house Itochu is pressing ahead with a strategic selection and concentration policy for its Dole fresh produce and packaged foods business, which it purchased four years ago.
Thanks partly to cost reductions due to a drastic reorganization, the Dole business bounced back to 8.3 billion yen ($73 million) in net profit for the year ended March 2017 from 16.9 billion yen in net loss a year ago.
For the next fiscal year, the company projects a 9.7 billion yen net profit. The goal is to become the biggest fruit producing and processing company in Asia.
In October last year, something extraordinary happened at grocery stores across Japan. Vegetables, citrus fruits and mangoes sold by Dole's Japanese unit under Itochu disappeared all at once from store shelves. It happened after Itochu pulled out of selling non-lucrative products, even though it had handled a wide range of products in an effort to secure as much shelf space as possible. Instead, the company is steering toward a strategy of channeling most of its resources into sales of its flagship bananas and other products.
