Bananas are Costa Rica’s largest export, and it’s easy to see why. Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast is always the perfect climate for growing bananas, which can grow year round. Furthermore the supply chain for bananas is very short; they can be harvested, quality checked, then shipped by the bunch without any special equipment. It is significantly easier to process than coffee, which needs to be harvest and quality checked as well, but they need to be processed over a few months and roasted before they can be sold to the final consumer. The big downside of banana plants is that Cavendish bananas, the banana variety sold everywhere, cannot reproduce sexually, which means plantations are monocultures. Monocultures are extremely susceptible to disease as a disease adapted to infecting one banana tree can easily infect all of them. In addition to disease, the bananas at the farm we visited also have to deal with moles chewing the roots and harming the plant.
Costa Rica’s second largest agricultural export is the pineapple. Much like bananas, consumers can use them immediately after harvest, thus their supply chain is nearly as short. That gains some length because pineapples need to be stored at 45 degrees Fahrenheit and protected in transit, or they will spoil. Bananas are protected by their peel, which provides them some resistance against impacts and weather. Pineapples are not a monoculture, so they are resistant to diseases, but still have to deal with insects boring into the fruit and eating it.
As with all farms, developing the necessary land for banana or pineapple plantations is harmful to the environment. However, those farms can run without continuing to damage the environment if farmers use organic fertilizer and pesticides. Banana farms grow a wide variety of plants in between the banana plants, which serves to replenish the soil, protect the plants, and lets them make new products from bananas. The banana farm we visited also constructed bee shelters so beehives can more easily pollinate the variety of plants. Banana and pineapple farms seem to hire more Costa Ricans than coffee farms. This is probably because those farms must be worked and harvested year-round, whereas coffee farms are seasonal and can rely on seasonal employment. I would rather work on a banana farm, as the work seems easier, there’s consistent employment, and the farms are more environmentally friendly.
