 The U.S. companies created very large plantations worked by labor that flooded into the region from the densely-settled Pacific coast, other Central American countries, and thanks to the company's policies favoring English speaking people, from the English-speaking Caribbean.The result was an enclave economy centered on the settlements and activities of the three major companies, Cuyamel Fruit Company, Standard Fruit and particularly United Fruit after it absorbed Cuyamel in 1930.In 1899, Vaccaro Brothers and Company (later known as Standard Fruit),a New Orleans-based fruit corporation, came to Honduras in 1899 to buy coconuts, oranges and bananas on Roatán.