Cuyamel Fruit Company

Cuyamel Fruit Company was founded in the 1890s by William Streich, a speculator who bought land near the Cuyamel River in Honduras. The company soon ran out of money and was purchased around 1905 by the Russian born Samuel Zemurray, who used it as part of the beginning of his growing banana trade operation.

Zemurray started selling bananas in Mobile, Alabama as a teenager before moving to New Orleans, Louisiana. He discovered that United Fruit, the major importer, was discarding bananas that were ripened earlier than others within the rest of a shipment. He found that they could be sold to the public at a discount and made arrangements to act as an intermediary. He set up a network of agents in the Southern region to sell at major rail stops. With the growth of his network, he relocated from Mobile to New Orleans to be closer to the docks. After earning enough profit selling bananas working from New Orleans, Zemurray helped start a steamship line to import bananas from independent growers in the tropics to sell in the United States. This firm was known as the Hubbard-Zemurray Steam Ship Company. Zemurray was able to expand his company by reducing banana spoilage in transit. Though information on this early incarnation of the company is scarce, records show that the Hubbard-Zemurray group was involved in at least one case before the Supreme Court of the United States.