Chiquita-backed Fresh Express, a supplier of packaged salads and fresh-cut fruits, agreed to acquire the fresh vegetables division from Dole, a provider of fresh produce, for $293m. "With this transaction, we want to combine our best practises across food safety, freshness of produce, mechanisation, automation, and innovation to offer rapidly expanding choices of safer and healthier produce products to the consumer. This combination will ultimately help drive growth in the entire produce industry and support higher demand for our valued produce grower base in California, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and across the entire USA," Jose Luis Cutrale Jr., Chiquita Chairman.