Today, we went on the Cultural Banana Tour and the Organic Pineapple Tour at the SOGO pineapple plantation. These products greatly contrast from our past plantation visits, as their processing system is very different from that of coffee. While coffee plants are started by planting seeds, banana and pineapple plants are started by replanting roots and baby plants. (Bananas have been developed to contain tiny seeds that are no longer amenable to planting.) once grown and harvested, bananas and pineapples can be eaten directly or sold as they are. In contrast, coffee cherries must undergo a long process of skinning, fermenting, sun-drying, and roasting before consumption. While all of these crops are popular Costa Rican exports, coffee is generally shipped unroasted and the fruits are shipped ready-to-eat. As a result, the producers also have different customers. Banana and pineapple producers tend to sell their products to supermarkets to distribute to individual consumers, and coffee producers tend to sell their products to shops that prepare the imported coffee before distributing to individual consumers.

All of these exports have similar approaches to sustainability. At every plantation we visited, waste was reused to demonstrate environmental sustainability. For example, the stems of banana plants, the leftover pineapple plants, and coffee cherry skins are used for compost. Similarly, old coffee wood is used as fuel to machine-dry coffee beans and produce charcoal for nutrients. However, the environmental sustainability of exports varies with the use of chemicals. While both pineapple and coffee plantations go to great lengths to avoid chemical products, many large banana plantations use chemicals to grow larger bananas and plantains. (The plantation in the Cultural Banana Tour only uses organic products, but companies like Chiquita Banana do not.) These plantations also share similarities in their sustainable working practices. Both pineapple and coffee plantations provide workers with insurance for health care and housing. This ensures the sustainability of workers’ well-being and encourages a reliable workforce to stay at the plantations by providing stability. Providing such resources is especially effective with Nicaraguan workers, as Costa Rican minimum wages are much higher than those in Nicaragua. Lastly, the plantations provide sustainable work and resources to their communities. In addition to hiring local workers in a tourism industry, the plantations provide food to the community. Bananas, pineapples, and coffee are all popular exports in Costa Rica, so their respective plantations attract money from other continents and distribute it to their areas of Costa Rica. In addition, companies like Café Monteverde support others by doing community work and buying other producers’ coffee to maintain a balanced economy.

As with all products, bananas and pineapples have unique threats. Bananas have been developed to grow without noticeable seeds, improving the texture and flavor. As a result, bananas are only grown from existing banana plants. Because all banana plants have the same genetic makeup, one disease can have the power to kill an entire population of bananas. To minimize the impact of harmful diseases, scientists develop multiple varieties of bananas as potential future plantation populations. With pineapple, pests are a threat to the fruits. While some plantations combat pests with pesticides, companies like SOGO use organic ingredients like garlic and chili to repel bugs. In addition, pineapples can be bruised if grabbed by the body. When bruised, pineapples start to ferment. To prevent unnecessary bruising, pineapple workers only grab pineapples by their crowns. Both banana and pineapple plantations struggle with climate change. Affected rainfall changes the quality and size of the produced fruits, reducing their value. To counteract the impact of climate change, pineapple plantations plow the dirt to add oxygen and prevent compression from sudden rain. Banana plantations also use irrigation plans to endure that the plants have enough water. Many plantations also work to prevent climate change by avoiding chemical products. Instead of using pesticides and chemical sprays, pineapple plantations cover the dirt with plastic to keep the soil cool and prevent erosion. Meanwhile, banana plantations increase costs and reduce banana size and quantity to avoid chemical products. If I were working on a plantation, I would want to work with bananas. Although I personally prefer eating pineapples, banana plantations provide more shade and are more likely to protect workers from strong weather conditions.