Chiquita shareholders got yellow and chose green.

Irish banana producer Fyffes yesterday announced it had agreed to a new merger proposal with Chiquita which would see it receive a smaller share of the newly-combined company.

Chiquita Brands International, owner of the namesake banana label, agreed to buy Ireland’s Fyffes to create the world’s biggest supplier of the fruit for about €407m.

It is hardly a mega-deal on the scale of AOL/Time Warner, but when it comes to fresh fruit, the $1bn merger of Fyffes and Chiquita is big bananas.

Tropical fruit supplier Fyffes is to merge with US-based rival Chiquita in a deal creating the world’s largest banana company, which will be based in Ireland.