The increase was primarily driven by the impact of revenue from the legacy Dole business following the merger, it said.

“The enhanced scale and diversification of our vertically integrated business enabled us to deliver strong results for the second quarter of 2022, in line with our expectations,” executive chairman Carl McCann said.

On a pro-forma basis, revenue, however, fell by 4.2 per cent or $102.3 million primarily due to negative foreign currency translation movements of $112.2 million and a net unfavourable impact of $69 million from acquisitions and divestitures. The “pro forma” figures were calculated as if the merger had occurred on January 1st, 2020, in order to give an insight into trends.

Total Produce, originally a spin-off of Irish fruit company Fyffes, completed the acquisition of Dole Foods in July last year, creating Dole plc.

Despite the strong figures, the group was forced to downgrade its full-year earnings expectations on the back of a slower-than-expected return to operating profitability of its “Fresh Vegetables” segment and the translation impact from the strengthening dollar.

Dole said it was now targeting full-year earnings, as measured by adjusted Ebitda, of $330- $350 million for the full year, a reduction of approximately 5.5 per cent from prior guidance.

“The global economic environment remains uncertain and complex and we are currently seeing positive trends along with some further challenges for the remainder of the year,” the company said.

“We are seeing signs of increasing demand in categories with lower retail selling prices such as bananas, whereas there is evidence of demand for higher-priced, value-added products reducing,” it said, noting there had been some stabilisation in prices for key commodities such as packaging, fertiliser and oil.

“The geopolitical conflict in Ukraine and Russia is ongoing and as such it remains difficult to accurately predict what overall impact the conflict may have on global trade flows, cost inflation and foreign exchange rates, and how the group’s results of operations and financial condition may be impacted over the remainder of this financial year,” it said.

Dole said adjusted diluted earnings per share for the three-month period was $0.44 compared to $0.70 for the pro-forma comparative three months. Dole‘s net debt as of the end of June stood at $1.06 billion.

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The company, formed in July through the merger of Total Produce and US rival Dole Foods, said that its pro-forma adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) declined by 35.4 per cent to $59.7 million (€52.8 million). Pro-forma revenue rose by 0.3 per cent to $2.3 billion.

However, for the first nine months of the year, revenue rose 4.5 per cent to $7.1 billion, while ebitda rose by 12.6 per cent to $337.7 million.

“Dole plc has delivered a strong performance for the first nine months of 2021 in the context of inflationary pressures across our North American and European markets during the third quarter,” said group executive chairman Carl McCann.

“With industry wide supply chain congestion and labour shortages, our diversified business model has proven itself to be responsive and resilient.”

Dole is targeting revenue in the range of $9.2 billion-$9.4 billion and ebitda of $390 million- $400 million for the full year.

The company’s largest division by sales and earnings, Dole Fresh Fruit, posted a 0.8 per cent dip in revenues in the third quarter with lower banana volumes in North America and banana pricing in Europe.

Ebitda in the division dropped by 53 per cent on the year due to lower revenue and higher transportation costs in North America, input materials increases, as well cost pressures from the ongoing supply chain impact caused by hurricanes in Honduras and Guatemala in November 2020.

Dole Fresh Vegetables’s ebitda for the third quarter plummeted by 90.8 per cent, due primarily to the impact of inflation in inland transportation as well as in packaging and labour and the persistently weak, oversupplied fresh packed vegetables market, it said.

The group has been pushing up prices for its value-added salads customers to help counter its rising costs.

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