Two leading executives of Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (NYSE: FDP) have made handsome profits by cashing in stock options in the company, whose share price surged in late April on the back of a 46% earnings boost for the first quarter.

Combined, president Hani El-Naffy and chief financial officer Richard Contreras sold US$4.5 million worth of stock between June 27 and July 1.

Photo: Keepon, via Flickr Creative Commons

The two executives sold at prices above US$30 per share after exercising options to buy at prices mostly ranging from US$21.72-24.29 per share.

For El-Naffy this equated to a positive differential of US$220,345, while for Contreras it was more than US$1 million.

Senior VP for North America sales Emanuel Lazapoulos also sold shares, albeit a much lower volume of them, and was up US$48,563 as a result.

According to Forbes, El-Naffy received a total compensation of close to US$4.66 million last year, with a series of stock options, awards and incentives building on a base salary just shy of US$1 million.

This is slightly less than CEO Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh's total compensation of US$4.94 million last year, while Contreras' total stood at US$1.1 million.

When it comes to CEOs from leading fruit companies, Businessweek calculates the following total annual compensation levels:

- Dole Food Company CEO and owner David Murdock: US$2.38 million.

- Chiquita Brands International (NYSE: CQB) CEO Ed Lonergan: US$1.62 million.

- Fyffes Plc (ESM: FFY) CEO David McCann: €1,063,000 (US$1.45 million).

- Total Produce (ISEQ: TOT.L) CEO Rory Byrne: €897,000 (US$1.22 million).

- Calavo Growers (NASDAQ: CVGW) CEO and president Lecil Cole: US$1.1 million.

- Limoneira Company (NASDAQ: LMNR) CEO Harold Edwards: US$$745,390.

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