The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating with 38,500 full-time and seasonal employees who supply some 300 products in 75 countries.

[2][3] As of 2021, the company had approximately 250 processing plants and distribution centers worldwide in addition to 109,000 acres (44,000 ha) of farmland and real estate.

[6] Dole has a comarketing agreement with The Walt Disney Company to encourage the public, including children, to consume fruits and vegetables.

[7] Dole plc traces its origins to the foundation of Castle & Cooke in 1851, and Charles McCann's Fish, Fruit and Vegetable Market in the 1850s in Ireland.

However, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company struggled to stay financially sound during the Great Depression and Castle & Cooke took control of it in 1932.

Two years later, the company began expanding its fruit growing operations into southeast Asia, opening plantations and canneries in the Philippines and Thailand.

[18]: 2, 4, 16  The firm grew rapidly in its early years, establishing a headquarters in La Ceiba, Honduras, purchasing housing and cargo ships, and building rail and telephone lines at its plantations.

[18]: 14,16  The company's rapid growth has been attributed to the destruction of property records in the early 20th century, leading the firm to take control of large swaths of land with the support of the Honduran government.

[22] Ten years after its merger with Standard Fruit, Castle & Cooke acquired Bud Antle Inc., a California-based vegetable company.

However, the ruling was overturned in 2010, with another judge noting a lack of evidence connecting the workers to Dole plantations and fraud committed by the plaintiffs' lawyers.

[9] Upon establishment, the firm was one of the largest produce companies in Europe, leading in Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and the Czech Republic.

[35] In 2009, Dole was sued by families of banana workers in Colombia, who alleged that the company had bankrolled militias that killed thousands of Colombians, including trade union organizers.

[39] In 2012, Dole reached a deal to sell its packaged food division and Asian fresh produce operations to the Japanese firm Itochu for $1.7 billion,[40] with the purchase concluding in April 2013.

[45] Covering five continents, Dole has 109,000 acres (44,000 ha) of its own farmland, 13 cargo vessels, five manufacturing plants, 75 packing houses and 160 distribution centers.

[55] In California, Dole is a certified member of the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA), a collaboration of food scientists and safety experts, government, farmers, shippers, and processors.

[55][56] Dole operates a SafetyChain system, which is a cellphone-based process for quality assurance on the farm (region, grower, and lot number), including immediate reports on non-compliance issues.

[55] Over decades, Dole has initiated several recalls of its products and shut down manufacturing facilities for cleaning in response to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, primarily related to bagged salads and leafy greens.

[59] According to Dole personnel and the California LGMA, this 2006 E. coli outbreak led to harmonizing new rigorous farm and handling practices across the fresh produce industry to minimize microbial contamination.

[62] The following year, Dole recalled bagged spinach due to contamination with salmonella following safety testing conducted by the United States Food and Drug Administration at a plant in Springfield, Ohio.