The supply chains of bananas, pineapple, and coffee have their similarities, but are also different. Coffee specifically has a few extra steps in the supply chain. While bananas and pineapples get harvested, packaged, and go straight to the consumer, coffee has to be roasted, adding another link in the supply chain and another industry for companies to profit from. Places like Cafe Britt exist because of that extra step and add to the economy.

In terms of sustainability, each industry takes special steps to protect the environment and workers. Coffee places give special benefits to their workers such as free childcare and housing. They also use fair trade to ensure their labor force is treated fairly. The pineapple and banana industries try to be as organic as possible to support the environment. Some chemicals are necessary, like plastic to avoid using pesticides and specific chemicals to control when the plants produce pineapples.

Plantations face several threats, one of the main ones being disease. Since banana plants are essentially clones, one disease can kill an entire plantation. Today, the labor force is also a challenge, as less and less Ticos are working on farms and plantations thus need to rely on immigrants from countries such as Nicaragua. From our several tours, it honestly does not seem like much is being done to combat the labor issue, but various farming methods like tarping fields and strategic planting of banana/mango plants help keep disease/insect activity to a minimum.

If I was a plantation worker, I would probably want to be a coffee worker. You get to stand upright most of the time, unlike pineapple plantations. You get shade, also unlike pineapple plantations. And the benefits seem to be much better, from what we’ve heard.