Besides getting hit with a piece of flying banana plant, the day was pretty appeeling! Don’t worry, it was a small piece so it did not hurt whatsoever 😁. In the morning, we took a two hour bus ride to Sarapiqui to visit a banana and a pineapple plantation. Similar to coffee, bananas do not originate from Central America, but rather the Philippines. Costa Rica did not start exporting bananas till around 1840 when Costa Rica decided they needed to export something else when coffee was not in season. This was to prevent the railway workers from becoming unemployed. Bananas are harvested throughout the entire year which is a major difference from coffee. Bananas are shipped year round all across the world to the United States, Europe, and Asia. Coffee is also exported throughout the world and to overlapping countries. A part of the tour that stood out to me was when the tour guide brought us through each step of the banana harvesting process. I had no idea that a banana is grown on a plant and not a tree! Comparatively, pineapples are grown and harvested during the full duration of the year, mostly because Costa Rica has the same two seasons each year. In terms of supply chain, 2 million pineapples are exported a year from Costa Rica, representing 75% of the world’s pineapple production making Costa Rica the country with the highest pineapple production in the world. 

Since an important value to Costa Rica is sustainability, both the banana and pineapple plantations have initiatives to protect the environment, their workers, and their communities. For example, the excess production from turning bananas into flour is given as food for the cows. At the pineapple plantation, fertilizers are made from raw materials such as chicken feathers, fish skeletons, and dried animal blood. At least the plants enjoy it. To remain an organic farm, there cannot be any chemicals found in the soil. Another sustainable characteristic of an organic farm is covering the crops with a plastic bag. This eliminates the risk of erosion and animals (or people) stealing the pineapples. Costa Rica prides itself on paying workers a fair wage and allowing migrant workers to have jobs. Therefore, workers at the pineapple plantation mostly travel from Nicaragua and receive all the same benefits a Costa Rican would. Workers have to be specialized because they have to work fast and complete strenuous tasks. So, while they get paid a decent amount, around $40 to $45 per day, since it is an extremely difficult job.

The largest threat facing the independent  banana plantation is that with large corporations like Chiquita, it is tough to compete. Primarily, this is because Chiquita can sell their bananas for cheaper due to the chemicals and pesticides they put into their banana production. The organic banana plantation solely uses naturally created fertilizer. In the pineapple plantation, insects carrying diseases and moths are harming the fields, thus leading to them placing red flags all around and leading the bugs to it. If I were a plantation worker, I would prefer to work at the pineapple plantation. Because this is an economic decision, I would go with whichever farm has the highest wages, therefore leading to pineapple. Another reason is because the job would be more stable since pineapple is so crucial to Costa Rica’s economy. Also, in general, I prefer eating pineapple over banana, especially after eating the pineapple today. I can never go back to U.S. pineapple. See you tomorrow in San José!