Stock in Chiquita Brands International Inc. continued its downward spiral this week, falling below $2 per share for the first time ever.

        The beleaguered banana company's stock was downgraded by Standard & Poor's, while Moody's said it would review the company for a possible downgrade. That would increase the company's interest costs.

        In announcing a $54 million third-quarter loss this week, officials at Cincinnati-based Chiquita said the strong dollar and weak European currency had negated any of the internal restructuring it has completed.

        “The euro is incontrovertibly the single factor that needs to be looked at today,” said Steve Warshaw, Chiquita's president and chief operating officer. “Operationally, things are better then they have been here in perhaps 15 years. But all the operational improvement has been offset by continued and accelerated weakness in the euro.”

        The stock market did not react well. Chiquita shares, priced at $50 per share as recently as 1991, fell below the $2 level the day of the earnings announcement Wednesday, and closed Friday at $2 per share.

        Chiquita shareholders have been buffeted not only by quarterly losses and falling stock prices, but by the suspension of all dividends.

        The company continues to nibble at the edges. After suspending the common-stock dividend early this year, the company said this week it would suspend the dividend on preferred stock, saving about $17 million a year.

        Chiquita also will close two more plants in its canned vegetable division. Robert Brill, vice president of the Chiquita Processed Foods subsidiary, said plants in Scottville, Mich., and Bricelyn, Minn., would be closed by mid-December.

        That will eliminate the jobs of about 66 full-time workers and dozens of seasonal workers at the two plants, Mr. Brill said.

        That leaves Chiquita Processed Foods with 21 plants in Wisconsin and six other states. Chiquita's earnings release said the canning division's earnings continued to improve as it “consolidated productive capacity.”

        During the second quarter ended June 30, the division accounted for about 19 percent of the company's total sales, or about $114.3 million, and about 15.7 percent of operating income, or about $6.9 million.

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