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Chiquita Brands plans to buy Agripac plants The Associated Press EUGENE -- Chiquita Brands International Inc., the world's largest distributor of bananas, is set to buy the Agripac Inc. canning plants in Eugene and Salem by the end of the month. Preliminary terms filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Eugene put the price at about $26.6 million for the inventory, the canning operations, and labelling and storage facilities in Salem. The price, if the deal is approved by Judge Frank Alley III, is well below the $40 million Agripac expected. Agripac CEO Charles Smutny said Monday the Chiquita offer was the best of three written tenders made. Agripac, with $142 million in bank debt, in early January filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In February, the cooperative sold its frozen food division to New York-based Pro-Fac Cooperative Inc. for $90 million. Pro-Fac didn't want the canning operations. A court hearing next week will set rules for any competing bids on the canning plants. Though bananas account for roughly 60 percent of the Cincinnati-based company's sales, Chiquita's Friday Canning Corp. subsidiary is one of the nation's largest private-label vegetable processors. Chiquita, with 1998 revenues of $2.7 billion, has been moving into the canned vegetable processing market to make itself less vulnerable to the whims of the banana market, which is subject to climatic and political change. In 1997, the company bought two large canning companies Owatonna Canning Co. and American Fine Foods Inc. Last year, Chiquita added Stokely USA Inc. to the Friday Canning fold. Growers in the southern Willamette Valley greeted the announcement with cautious optimism. If the processing facilities were shut, the Agripac vegetable farmers could have trouble selling their crops. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA