NYSE: DMC

•Fresh and value-added products - includes pineapples, fresh-cut fruit, fresh-cut vegetables (which includes fresh-cut salads), melons, vegetables, non-tropical fruit (which includes grapes, apples, citrus, blueberries, strawberries, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries and kiwis), other fruit and vegetables, avocados, and prepared foods (which includes prepared fruit and vegetables, juices, other beverages, and meals and snacks).

•Banana

•Other products and services - includes our third-party freight and logistic services business, our Jordanian poultry and meats business and our specialty ingredients business (previously referred to as our biomass initiatives).

We market and distribute our products to retail stores, club stores, convenience stores, wholesalers, distributors and foodservice operators in more than 80 countries around the world. North America is our largest market, accounting for 58% of our net sales in 2025. Our other major markets are Europe, the Middle East (which includes North Africa) and Asia. Our net sales by region for the year 2025 are depicted in the chart below.

We produce, source, distribute and market a broad array of fresh produce, primarily under the Del Monte® brand, as well as under other proprietary brands, such as UTC® and Rosy®. We also produce, distribute and market prepared fruits and vegetables, juices, beverages and snacks under the Del Monte® brand, as well as other proprietary brands, such as Just Juice®, Fruitini®, Pinkglow®, Del Monte Zero®™, Honeyglow®, Rubyglow®, Honey Miniglow®, Bananinis®, and other regional trademarks in North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Our distribution centers and fresh-cut facilities address the growing demand from supermarket chains, club stores, convenience stores, foodservice providers, mass merchandisers and independent grocers to provide value-added services, including the preparation of fresh-cut produce, ripening, customized sorting and packing, just-in-time and direct-store-delivery and in-store merchandising and promotional support. Large national and global chains are increasingly choosing fewer suppliers who can serve all of their needs on a national basis. We believe that there is a significant opportunity for a company like ours with a full fresh and fresh-cut produce line, well-recognized brands, a consistent supply of quality produce and a global distribution network to become the preferred supplier to these large retail, convenience store, and foodservice customers. We strive to expand this status by increasing our leading position in fresh-cut produce, expanding our fresh fruit and vegetable business, continuing to grow these value-added products and diversifying our other fresh produce selections.

Del Monte Foods Acquisition

On January 15, 2026, we were selected as the successful bidder by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey (the “Court”) to acquire select assets of Del Monte Foods Corporation II Inc. and its affiliates ("Del Monte Foods") for approximately $285 million plus the assumption of certain liabilities following a competitive bankruptcy auction process under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The Court subsequently approved the sale order and execution of an Asset Purchase Agreement (“APA”) on February 6, 2026. Under the APA, we will acquire (i) the prepared and packaged foods businesses of Del Monte Foods comprising canned vegetable, tomato, and refrigerated fruit business assets operated under the Del Monte®, S&W®, Contadina®, Take Root Organics® trademarks, (ii) the bubble tea business operated under the Joyba® trademarks, (iii) four US facilities, two facilities in Mexico, and one facility in Venezuela and (iv) global ownership of the Del Monte® brand, which is subject to existing licensing arrangements across different regions and categories (the “Acquisition”). The APA also provides for the assumption of customer and supplier contracts as defined in the APA, as well as inventory at closing to help support uninterrupted service to the existing customer base. The Acquisition brings the Del Monte® brand under a single owner for the first time in nearly four decades, allowing our business to align fresh and shelf-stable foods under one integrated strategy while leveraging our distribution network and infrastructure within North America. We expect to finance the Acquisition through a combination of cash on hand, existing escrow deposits of $28.5 million made pursuant to the terms of the bankruptcy auction, and availability under our existing revolving credit facility. The Acquisition, which we expect to close during the first quarter of 2026, remains subject to regulatory clearances, including under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and other customary closing conditions.

Sourcing and Production

A graphic depicting our geographic sales and sourcing operations as of the end of 2025 is shown below.

We source our fresh produce products primarily from Central and South America, North America, and the Philippines, and our prepared food products from Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. We also produce, market and distribute certain prepared food products in North America based on our agreement with Del Monte Pacific Limited and its subsidiary Del Monte Foods, Inc.

Our products are sourced from company-controlled operations and through supply contracts with independent producers. In 2025, 52% of the fresh produce we sold was grown on company-controlled farms and the remaining 48% was acquired primarily through supply contracts with independent growers. Costa Rica is our most significant sourcing location representing approximately 34% of our total sales volume of fresh produce products and where 41% of our property, plant and equipment was located in 2025.

Fresh and value-added products

Our fresh and value-added products segment includes sales of the following product categories:

Fresh-cut produce (fresh-cut fruit and fresh-cut vegetables)

Our fresh-cut produce sales in 2025 represented 20% of our total net sales. Our largest selling market for our fresh-cut products was North America, which accounted for 69% of our fresh-cut fruit sales and 74% of our fresh-cut vegetable sales in 2025. We also sold fresh-cut produce in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

We believe that the fresh-cut produce market continues to be one of the fastest-growing categories in the fresh produce industry, largely due to consumer trends favoring healthy, fresh and conveniently packaged ready-to-eat foods. While packaged salads continue to lead the category of fresh-cut produce sales, the category has expanded significantly to include pineapples, melons, mangoes, grapes, citrus and assorted vegetable produce items that are washed, cut and packaged in a ready-to-use form. Within this market, we believe that there is differentiation between companies active primarily in the packaged salad market and other companies, like us, that can offer a wide variety of value-added conventional and organic fresh-cut fruit and vegetable items.

Our fresh-cut fruit products include pineapples, melons, grapes, citrus, apples, mangoes, kiwis and other fruit items. We believe that our experience in this market coupled with our sourcing and logistics capabilities and the Del Monte® brand have enabled us to become a leading supplier of fresh-cut fruit to the supermarket, convenience and club store channels in the United States. Our offerings in North America also include a broad variety of fresh-cut vegetable products.

The majority of fresh-cut produce is sold to consumers through retail and club store settings, as well as non-conventional settings such as e-commerce, convenience stores, and airports. We believe that outsourcing by food retailers will increase, particularly as food safety regulations become more stringent and retailers demand more value-added services. We believe that this trend should benefit large branded suppliers like us, who are better positioned to invest in state-of-the-art fresh-cut facilities, food safety systems and to service regional, national and global chains and foodservice operators, as well as supercenters, mass merchandisers, club stores and convenience stores. We also believe that large branded suppliers benefit from merchandising, branding and other marketing strategies for fresh-cut products, similar to those used for branded processed food products, which depend substantially on product differentiation.

The fruit we use in our fresh-cut operations are sourced within our integrated system of Company-controlled farms and from GAP-certified (good agricultural practices) independent growers. We purchase our vegetables from independent growers principally in the United States and Mexico. Our purchase contracts for both fruit and vegetables are typically short-term and vary by produce item.

Pineapples

We believe that we are the leading marketer of fresh pineapples in the United States and a leading marketer worldwide based on internally generated data. Our pineapple net sales in 2025 represented 16% of our total net sales, and were primarily concentrated in North America (accounting for 57% of our total pineapple sales), followed by Europe (25%), Asia (9%), and the Middle East (9%).

Our Del Monte Gold® Extra Sweet pineapple, which was launched in 1996 as a then-new variety, has an enhanced taste, golden shell color, and bright yellow flesh and has replaced other traditional pineapple varieties in popularity and demand. The production and sale of premium pineapples in the market has also led to increased competition. In recent years, we have continued our efforts to innovate our product lines, including with the launch of our proprietary Pinkglow® pineapple in 2020 and with the relaunch of our Honeyglow® pineapple in 2021. In 2022, as a further showcase of our diverse product line in the pineapple space, we announced the launch of our Del Monte Zero™ carbon neutral pineapple, which provides consumers with a unique opportunity to support climate-conscious produce. This pineapple product line extension is grown in Costa Rica and has been certified as sustainably grown by a third-party certification body. In January 2024, we launched our Rubyglow® pineapple, debuting exclusively in China and later in the United States, which features a red exterior and bright yellow flesh as part of our expansion into the market. We expanded the launch of our Rubyglow® pineapple in Europe in early 2025.

Pineapples are grown in tropical and sub-tropical locations. The principal production and procurement areas for our pineapples are Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Kenya.

Pineapples have a long growing cycle of 18 months and require re-cultivation after one to two harvests. Growing pineapple requires a higher level of capital investment, as well as greater agricultural expertise as compared to bananas. Given the complexity of pineapple cultivation relative to our bananas, a higher percentage of the fresh pineapples we sell (81% by volume in 2025) is produced on company-controlled farms.

Avocados

Avocado net sales represented 8% of our total net sales during 2025. Avocados are one of the fastest growing produce items in the United States. According to a USDA report, the quantity of avocados available per person, a proxy for consumption, has tripled over the past two decades. Additionally, The Packer, a leading fresh produce publication, reported over the most recent three years that an average of approximately 55% of consumers in the U.S. purchased avocados over the same time period. During 2025, our largest selling market for avocados was North America, which made up 97% of our avocado net sales. We believe opportunity exists to expand our avocado net sales in international markets.

Our avocados are sourced principally from Mexico where we have our own sourcing operations and sorting and packing facility, ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality avocados year-round. Our supply of avocados are supplemented from independent growers in the United States, Colombia, and Peru. In August 2025, we announced the formation of a Colombian-based joint venture to expand our sourcing of avocados in Colombia for our North America and European markets.

Prepared Foods

Prepared foods net sales represented 7% of our total net sales during 2025. We have a royalty-free, perpetual license to use the Del Monte® trademark in connection with the production, manufacture, sale and distribution of prepared food, including beverages, in over 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and certain Central Asian countries. We can also produce, market and distribute certain prepared food products in North America based on our agreement with Del Monte Pacific Limited. The Del Monte® brand has a reputation with both consumers and retailers for value, quality and reliability and is considered a premier brand in many Western European markets. In addition to under the Del Monte® label, our prepared food products are also sold under the buyers’ own private label for major retailers.

Our prepared food products include prepared pineapple, peaches, fruit cocktail, pears, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as fruit juices, various meals and snacks, guacamole, and industrial products such as fruit in the form of purees, pulps and concentrates for further processing.

Our prepared pineapple products are primarily sourced from our facility in Kenya while our prepared deciduous and tomato products are primarily sourced from our facility in Greece and from independent producers. We expect to continue investing in new product development to increase revenue and maintain market leadership in our prepared foods category.

Banana

Bananas are the leading internationally traded fresh fruit in terms of volume and dollar sales and one of the best-selling fresh fruits in the United States. According to a 2025 publication by The Packer, bananas were the most popular item in the produce department, purchased by 92% of consumers in the U.S. over the past twelve months.

We believe that we are the third-largest marketer of bananas in the United States and a leading marketer in other markets worldwide, based on internally generated data. Our banana net sales in 2025 represented 34% of our total net sales, and were primarily concentrated in North America (accounting for 46% of our total banana sales), followed by Europe (26%), Asia (16%), and the Middle East (11%). Our ability to provide our customers with a year-round supply of high-quality Del Monte® bananas is important to maintaining our existing customer relationships and attracting new customers. Our position as a volume shipper of bananas has also allowed us to make regular shipments of a wide array of other fresh produce, such as pineapples, melons and plantains, and has positioned us to expand our third-party ocean freight services, thereby reducing our average per-box logistics costs and maintaining higher quality produce with a longer shelf life.

Bananas have a relatively short growing cycle and are grown in tropical locations with humid climates and heavy rainfall, such as Central and South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa. Bananas are grown throughout the year in these locations, although demand and prices fluctuate based on the relative supply of bananas and the availability of seasonal and alternative fruit.

We produce bananas on Company-controlled farms in Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Philippines, Panama and Brazil, and we purchase bananas from independent growers in Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador, and Colombia. In 2025, we produced approximately 47% of the banana volume we sold on Company-controlled farms, and we purchased the remainder from independent growers. Although our supply contracts are primarily long-term, we also make purchases in the spot market, primarily in Ecuador. In Ecuador and Costa Rica, there are minimum export prices for the sale of bananas, which are established and reviewed on a periodic basis by the respective governments.

In the Philippines, we purchase the majority of our bananas through long-term contracts with independent growers. Approximately 94% of our Philippine-sourced bananas were supplied in 2025 by one grower, representing 13% of the Philippines banana industry volume in 2025. In the Philippines, we have leased approximately 610 hectares of land where we have planted approximately 505 hectares of bananas for the Asia and the Middle East markets. This amount excludes previously leased land associated with two operations in the Philippines which we abandoned during the third quarter of 2025 as a result of low profitability and reduced production.

During 2025, we began supplementing purchases of bananas for our Asia markets by sourcing from independent growers in Vietnam and Cambodia under short-term trial agreements. Further, in November 2025, we announced our signing of a strategic partnership with THACO Agri to source bananas from their operations in Vietnam and Cambodia to strengthen our sourcing in Southeast Asia.

Additionally, in early 2023, we announced a multi-year collaboration agreement with a United Arab Emirates-based ("UAE") firm to supply our Middle East and North Africa markets with bananas grown in Somalia, which started in 2025. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Somalia was a main hub for banana exports to these regions.

Other Products and Services

Included in our other products and services segment is our third-party freight and logistic services business, our Jordanian poultry and meats business and our specialty ingredients business.

Our third-party freight and logistic services business leverages our supply chain assets, including our shipping vessels, warehouses and cold storage infrastructure as part of our efforts to expand our portfolio of services. Our third-party ocean freight services business “Network Shipping” operates as a hybrid shipping line/cargo owner and seeks to offer customers flexible and dependable access to routes between Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and the U.S. Our six refrigerated container vessels, which were delivered in 2020 and 2021, have allowed us to continue expanding this ancillary business, and provide meaningful contribution to our profitability. The business began by allowing us to optimize the excess capacity on our ships’ outbound and return voyages to and from our product sourcing locations as a way to generate incremental revenue and reduce our overall shipping costs. We have opened agencies in the U.S., Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru to support the expansion of this business and better serve our customers, including by enabling better end-to-end solutions such as cold storage services at port locations and cross-docking services in addition to our ocean freight services.

In addition we provide a range of logistic services in North America, including inland freight, cross-docking, cold storage and warehousing services in an effort to further leverage our supply chain network within the region and optimize the productivity of our assets.

Our Jordanian poultry and meats business includes a vertically-integrated poultry business, including poultry farms, hatcheries, a feed mill, a slaughterhouse and a meat processing plant.

Our specialty ingredients business, previously referred to as our biomass initiatives, include a Kenyan biofertilizer plant, which will use residues from the Company's pineapple cannery to create different types of biomass products for internal use and third-party sales to other growers. In addition, our specialty ingredients business includes our majority stake in a Ugandan supplier of bulk crude and edible avocado oil which we acquired during March 2025.

Logistics Operations

We conduct complex logistics operations on a global basis, transporting our products from the countries in which they are grown to the many markets in which they are sold worldwide. Maintaining fresh produce at the appropriate temperature is an important factor in preventing premature ripening and optimizing product quality and freshness. Consistent with our reputation for high-quality fresh produce, we must preserve our fresh produce in a continuous temperature-controlled environment, from the harvest through to distribution.

We have an integrated logistics network, which includes land and sea transportation through a broad range of refrigerated environments on ships, port facilities, containers, trucks and warehouses. Our logistics system is supported by various information systems. Our objective is to maximize use of our logistics network to lower our average per-box logistics cost, while remaining sufficiently flexible to redeploy capacity or shipments to meet fluctuations in demand in our key markets. Because logistics costs are also our largest expense other than our cost of products, we devote substantial resources to optimizing our logistics network.

As of the year ended December 26, 2025, we transported our fresh produce to markets using our fleet of one chartered and six owned ships, and four port facilities in the United States. We also transport our products to destinations around the world using third-party container lines that cover destinations that we do not service directly with our own fleet. Our owned ships are refrigerated container ships that we received in 2020 and 2021. These fuel-efficient vessels have allowed us to continue generating logistics cost savings, expanding our third-party ocean freight business, and ensuring the freshness and quality of our products. In addition, we operated a fleet of approximately 11,000 refrigerated containers. We operated 31 distribution centers globally, generally with cold storage and banana ripening facilities in our key markets worldwide, including the United States, South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. We also operated 18 fresh-cut facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, some of which are located within our distribution centers. In addition, we own or lease other related equipment, including approximately 419 trucks and refrigerated trailers used to transport our fresh produce in the United States. In the Middle East, we own or lease approximately 241 trucks used to deliver fresh produce, prepared food, and poultry products to customers.

We believe that our control of the logistics process is a competitive advantage, including from a sales and marketing perspective. For example, because we are able to maintain the quality of our fresh produce in a continuous temperature-controlled environment, we are under less pressure to fully sell a shipment prior to its arrival at port. This allows us to manage the timing of our sales to optimize our margins. Our ability to off-load shipments for cold storage and distribution throughout our network also improves ship utilization by minimizing in-port docking time. In addition, our logistics network enables us to continuously monitor and maintain the quality of our produce, ensure timely and regular distribution to customers on a year-round basis, and manage our inventory among distribution centers, as needed, to effectively respond to changes in market demand.

Sales and Marketing

The Del Monte® brand has been used to identify premium produce products for over 130 years and is recognized by consumers worldwide for quality, freshness and reliability. We employ a variety of marketing tools, including advertising, public relations and promotions to reinforce our brand equity with consumers and the trade. Depending on the product and market, we also provide technical, logistical and merchandising support aimed at safeguarding the superior quality of our products to the ultimate consumer. Our sales activities are conducted by our sales force, which operates through sales offices worldwide and at each of our distribution centers. These commercial efforts are supported by centralized and regional marketing professionals located in key markets. A key element of our sales and marketing strategy is to use our distribution centers and fresh-cut facilities to provide value-added services to our customers. We actively support our customers through technical training in the handling of fresh produce, category management, in-store merchandising support, joint promotional activities, market research, inventory and other logistical support.

The level of marketing investment necessary to support the prepared foods business is significantly higher than that required for the fresh produce and fresh-cut fruit and vegetable business. We use a variety of promotional tools to build the Del Monte® brand and engage consumers in key markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In certain European markets, we use distributors to perform product distribution, sales and marketing activities for the prepared foods business. Under these distribution agreements, the sales, warehousing, logistics, marketing and promotion functions are all performed by the distributor. This strategy of utilizing independent distributors enables us to reduce distribution, sales and marketing expenses while allowing us to penetrate additional markets.

During 2025, one customer, Walmart, Inc. (including its affiliates), accounted for approximately 7% of our total net sales. These sales are reported in our banana and fresh and value-added products segments. No customer accounted for 10% or more of our net sales in 2025. In 2025, our top 10 customers accounted for approximately 29% of our net sales.

North America

In 2025, 58% of our net sales were in North America where we have established a highly-integrated sales and marketing network that builds on our ability to control transportation and distribution throughout our extensive logistics network. We operate a total of 20 distribution centers and fresh-cut facilities within North America. Our distribution centers have ripening capabilities and/or other value-added services. Within North America we also operate four port facilities, which include cold storage capabilities, and own an avocado packing facility in Uruapan, Mexico.

We have sales professionals in locations throughout the United States and Canada. We sell to leading grocery stores and other retail chains, wholesalers, mass merchandisers, supercenters, foodservice operators, club stores, convenience stores and distributors in North America. These large customers typically take delivery of our products at the port facilities, which we refer to as FOB delivery. We also service these customers, as well as an increasing number of smaller regional chains and independent grocers, through our distribution centers.

Europe

In 2025, 21% of our net sales were in Europe where we distribute our fresh produce and prepared food products. Our fresh produce products are distributed to leading retail chains, smaller regional customers as well as to wholesalers and distributors through direct sales and distribution centers. In the United Kingdom, we have a sales office in Staines, England and operate a fresh-cut facility in Wisbech, England. In France we outsource our banana ripening activities to third-parties, while our sales and marketing function is performed internally. Similarly, in Germany, our sales and marketing function is performed internally and our ripening operations were outsourced to a service provider beginning in 2022. In the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Poland, we have sales and marketing entities that perform direct sales of our fresh produce products.

Our prepared food products are distributed through independent distributors throughout most of Europe. In the United Kingdom, our prepared food products are distributed using a combination of both independent distributors and our own marketing entity. Our prepared foods activity in Germany and France has been performed via direct sales to the retail channel through our own sales and marketing entity.

Middle East and North Africa

In 2025, 10% of our net sales were in the Middle East and North Africa. In this region, we distribute our products through independent distributors and company-operated distribution facilities.

Our leased distribution and manufacturing center in Dubai, UAE has just-in-time delivery capabilities and includes fresh-cut fruit and vegetable operations, an ultra-fresh juice manufacturing operation and prepared foods distribution. In Saudi Arabia, through our 60%-owned joint venture, we lease two distribution centers with fresh-cut fruit, vegetable and salad operations, and prepared foods manufacturing of frozen potatoes, and ultra-fresh juices. One of the distribution centers is located in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, and the other distribution center is located in Jeddah, the second largest city in Saudi Arabia.

In the UAE and in Saudi Arabia, we also distribute our products using our own innovative retail concept through our Food and Beverage (F&B) stores. These F&B stores are small retail kiosks selling our fresh-cut produce, juice and other prepared food products and are strategically located in airports, schools, and hospitals.

In Jordan, we own a vertically-integrated poultry business including poultry farms, hatcheries, a feed mill, a slaughterhouse and a meat processing plant. As part of our vertical integration and expansion strategy in this region, we developed a 10-hectare ultra-modern hydroponic greenhouse in Jordan to supply lettuce to our fresh-cut facilities, and where we also have a fresh-cut processing center for supplying lettuce to the Jordan market. We have one F&B store in Jordan.

In Qatar, we have a sales and marketing office to serve the expanding brand presence in the country. In Turkey, our sales office located in Mersin is responsible for sourcing various types of fruit serving our units across the region. We have a leased facility to service the Kuwaiti market with our fresh produce products and fresh-cut fruit, fresh-cut vegetables and salads. We also have an office in Morocco, which distributes our products locally and exports locally-sourced fresh produce, allowing us to further expand our coverage in the North Africa Region. We believe that the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asian countries represent an area for sales growth and development of our fresh and prepared food products. Utilizing our extensive knowledge of this region, we plan to continue capitalizing on this opportunity with increased focus in these markets.

Asia

In 2025, 9% of our net sales were in Asia. We distribute our products in Asia through direct marketing and large distributors. Our principal markets in this region are Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong.

•In Japan, we distributed 100% of the products we sold in 2025 through our own direct sales and marketing organization and we operated two fresh-cut facilities. Our products are distributed from four distribution centers located at strategic ports in Japan, which include cold storage.

•In South Korea and Hong Kong, we engage in direct sales and marketing activities. In South Korea, we have three distribution centers that utilize advanced ripening technology and which increase our ability to offer value-added services to our customers. In South Korea, we also operate a fresh-cut fruit and vegetable facility from which we supply major foodservice customers. In Hong Kong, we have one distribution and banana ripening center.

•In other Asian markets, including mainland China, we sell to local distributors.

Quality Assurance

To ensure the consistent high quality of our products, we have quality assurance operations placed throughout our global operations under the guidance of our corporate quality assurance team and the direction of our regional quality assurance leadership. These quality assurance teams maintain and enforce detailed quality specifications for all our products so that they meet or exceed our high-quality standards and any applicable regulatory requirements. Our specifications require extensive sampling of our fresh produce at each stage of the production and distribution process using external appearance, internal quality, size, color, porosity, translucency, sweetness and other criteria. Our goal is that only fresh produce meeting our stringent quality specifications is sold under the Del Monte® brand.

We are able to maintain the high quality of our products by growing a substantial portion of our own produce and working closely with our independent growers. We insist that all produce supplied by our independent growers meet the same stringent quality requirements as the produce grown on our farms. Accordingly, we monitor our independent growers to ensure that their produce will meet our agricultural and quality control standards, offer technical assistance on certain aspects of production and packing and, in some cases, manage the farms. The quality assurance process begins on the farms and continues as harvested products enter our packing facilities. Where appropriate, we cool the fresh produce at our packing facilities to maximize quality and optimize shelf life.

As an indication of our worldwide commitment to quality, food safety, and sustainability, many of our operations are third party certified in globally recognized standards developed for the safe and sustainable production and distribution of quality foods. All of our global fresh-cut operations are certified with at least one of the internationally recognized audit schemes, Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), that include PrimusGFS, BRCGS, FSSC 22000, and Global GAP. We ensure that we comply with local, regional, and country-specific regulations specific to our global operations sites; farm, packing, processing, and storage. In the United States, our operations are in compliance with the requisite programs defined by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act. All of our operations that produce or handle high risk foods (tomatoes, melons or leafy greens) apply Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (“HACCP”) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) principles. HACCP is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical and physical hazard from raw material harvesting, packing, cooling; processing and handling, storage and distribution.

Our certification also includes SCS Global Services’ Sustainably Grown Certified and the Sustainable Agriculture Network’s Rain Forest Alliance for sustainable agriculture and food production.

The transition to a low-carbon economy also presents us with commercial opportunities such as the increasing demand for sustainable products. In response to this, we introduced Del Monte Zero®™ in 2023, our carbon-neutral pineapple as certified by SCS Global Services. As part of this effort, we invested in conserving over 8,000 hectares of forest in Costa Rica.

Competition

The global fresh produce industry is a highly competitive business, and the effect of competition is intensified because of the perishable nature of the products. We compete based on a variety of factors, including price, overall product quality, brand recognition and customer loyalty, reliability and consistency, effectiveness of marketing and promotional activity, and the ability to identify and satisfy evolving consumer preferences. Our sales are also affected by the availability of seasonal and alternative produce. While historically our main competitors have been multinational banana and pineapple producers, our diversified range of product offerings has resulted in additional competition from a variety of companies. These companies include local and regional producers and distributors in each of our fresh produce and fresh-cut product categories.

The extent of competition varies by product. In the banana market, we continue to face competition from a limited number of large multinational companies. At times, particularly when demand is greater than supply, we also face competition from a large number of relatively small banana producers. Unlike the pineapple market, there are few barriers to entry into the banana market. Supplies of bananas can be increased relatively quickly due to bananas having a short growing cycle and the limited capital investment required for banana growing. As a result of changes in supply and demand, plus seasonal factors, banana prices fluctuate significantly.

In the pineapple category, we believe that the high degree of capital investment and cultivation expertise required, as well as the longer length of the growing cycle, makes it relatively difficult to enter the market. Our primary competitors in this category are large multinational producers, as well as smaller exporters and importers. Our profitability has depended significantly on the sale of our Del Monte Gold® Extra Sweet pineapples.

The fresh-cut produce market is highly fragmented, and we compete with a wide variety of local and regional distributors of branded and unbranded fresh-cut produce and, in the case of certain fresh-cut vegetables, a small number of large, branded producers and distributors. However, we believe that our principal competitive opportunity is to capitalize on the growing trend of retail chains and independent grocers to outsource their own on-premises fresh-cut operations. We believe that our sales strategy, which emphasizes not only our existing sources of fresh produce, but also a full range of value-added services, strict compliance with food safety standards and our national distribution capability, positions us to increase our share of this market.

The prepared food products market is mature and characterized by high levels of competition and consumer awareness. Consumer choices are driven by price and/or quality. Large retailers with their “buyers own label” (“BOL”) products appeal to price-conscious consumers, while brand names are the key differentiator for quality-focused consumers. In the prepared foods markets in Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East, we compete with various local producers, large retailers with their BOL products, and large international branded companies. We believe we hold a leading market position in the branded section of our prepared food products, specifically canned fruit and pineapple, in many European countries. The mature state of the market in Western Europe, together with the strength and sophistication of the large retailers there, account in part for the increasing presence of BOL products in many food and beverage categories. In order to reduce our costs and increase our competitiveness in the prepared foods market, particularly in Europe, we use distributors in certain key European markets to perform product distribution and sales and marketing activities. Under these arrangements, the sales, warehousing, logistics, marketing and promotion functions are all performed by the distributor.

Government Regulation

As a producer and distributor of food products, we are subject to extensive government laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where our produce is grown, where our facilities are located and where our products are distributed. We have internal policies and procedures to comply with the most stringent regulations applicable to our products, as well as a technical staff to monitor pesticide usage and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. We believe we are in material compliance with these laws and regulations.

The countries in which we market a material amount of our products are the United States, the countries of the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia. The government regulations we are subject to include:

•sanitary regulations, particularly in the United States and the EU;

•regulations on imports and exports by the USDA and other jurisdictions;

•regulations governing pesticide use in all source countries and residue standards in all market countries, particularly in the United States, the EU, Germany, Japan and South Korea;

•laws and regulations associated with the European Green Deal and the EU's General Food Law Regulation effort to create sustainable food systems, which could result in increased costs for our business associated with new laws and regulations;

•laws and regulations implemented by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other Canadian governmental departments, which could disrupt our Canadian business, including, for example, requirements relating to import licenses, traceability and food testing;

•ongoing Endocrine Disruptor Assessment programs in the EU and United States which may potentially impact availability, use and residue tolerance of some pesticides; and

•regulations governing safety, traceability, packaging, and labeling, particularly (i) in the United States where we are subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Food Safety Modernization Act, and (ii) in the EU pursuant to food and safety laws issued by member states of the EU and pursuant to the General Food Law Regulation (EC No. 178/2002), where food safety policy is governed by the Farm to Fork Strategy which regulates food safety at all stages of the production and distribution process for all food products marketed within the EU, whether produced within the EU or imported from other countries. For further information about these regulations, please refer to the discussion in