WESTLAKE VILLAGE, California - July 12, 2001

Dole Food Company, Inc. (NYSE: DOL) Thursday announced that its net income for the second quarter of 2001 was $37 million or 66 cents per share. Net income for the second quarter of 2001 included $8 million of pre-tax gain related to the sale of investments and $28 million of pre-tax expense primarily related to asset write-downs resulting from business reconfiguration programs initiated during the quarter. The $28 million of pre-tax expense is primarily for the shutdown and related asset sales of the company's California deciduous and Northwest apples businesses. Excluding these items, net income from ongoing operations was $50 million, or 90 cents per share, for the second quarter of 2001 compared with net income of $45 million, or 81 cents per share, for the second quarter of 2000, all from ongoing operations.

EBIT in the company's fresh fruit segment increased due to improved earnings in its banana and fresh pineapple operations largely as a result of significant cost-cutting activities, increased volumes and pricing in North America and favorable banana pricing in Europe. Earnings in the company's fresh vegetables segment were slightly lower due to more normalized commodity vegetable pricing in North America partially offset by continued growth in the packaged salads business. Earnings in the company's processed foods segment were down primarily due to costs associated with the launch of new FRUIT-N-GEL BOWLS and the timing of manufacturing and plant maintenance expenses in its pineapple canning facilities as well as increased marketing costs related to new product introductions and competitive pricing in its Honduran beverage business.

Lawrence A. Kern, president and chief operating officer, stated: "The earnings in our fresh fruit segment reflect the positive impact of our cost-cutting initiatives, particularly in our banana business. These earnings also reflect the strengthening of banana pricing in North America and Europe, although this increase was partially offset by weaker yen and euro currency exchange rates versus the comparable period of 2000. While we continue to face earnings pressure from weak currency exchange rates as well as high prices for commodities such as fuel and electricity, we are encouraged by our year-over-year improvement."

Click here to download 2001 second-quarter earnings in Adobe Acrobat (*pdf) format.

Dole Food Company, Inc., with 2000 revenues of $4.8 billion, is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and fresh-cut flowers, and markets a growing line of packaged foods.

The company will host an earnings conference call today at 1 p.m. (EDT), featuring remarks by Lawrence A. Kern, president and chief operating officer, and Kenneth J. Kay, vice president and chief financial officer. The conference call will be webcast and available online at www.dole.com and at www.streetfusion.com in the "Earnings Events" section.

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations, are generally identifiable by the use of terms such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "believes" and similar expressions. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied herein include weather-related phenomena; market responses to industry volume pressures; product and raw materials supplies and pricing; electrical power supply and pricing; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; economic crises in developing countries; quotas, tariffs and other governmental actions; and the ability of the company and its European customers and suppliers to complete euro conversion efforts. Further information on the factors that could affect Dole's financial results is included in its SEC filings, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K.