Dole Food Co. Inc. said its first quarter profits were hurt by weak market conditions in Europe and Asia.

The Westlake Village fruit and vegetable producer reported net income of $23 million, compared with $104 million a year earlier, with operating income down 52 percent to $59 million.

Net revenue rose less than 1 percent to $1.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average were expecting revenue of $1.65 billion.

Chief Executive David DeLorenzo said its fresh vegetables and packaged foods segments met or exceeded the company’s goals for the quarter.

“Our fresh fruit operations, however, were negatively impacted by poor market conditions in Europe and Asia during the quarter related to severe weather conditions in both markets, as well as the continuing weak economic conditions in the European Union,” DeLorenzo said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Dole attorneys are in court Tuesday as six Nicaraguan banana workers whom the company has accused of fraud will get a chance to tell their story to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. The men claimed that exposure to pesticides made them sterile and received $2.3 million after a 2007 jury verdict. But Judge Victoria Chaney is now considering reversing that award.

Later testimony showed the men were not plantation workers and were recruited by Los Angeles attorney Juan J. Dominguez and a Nicaraguan associate to lie. The case is related to one the judge dismissed last summer on similar fraud grounds.

Shares were down 72 cents, or 6.7 percent, to $10.02 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.