Today, we visited a Pineapple plantation in Sarapiqui, which was very hot and humid, might I say. This plantation exports around $1.2 billion worth of fruit annually. But this farm isn’t just about mass production, it’s about sustainability, community, and innovation.
Pineapple and coffee may be tropical crops, but their journeys from farm to table tell very different stories. Pineapples, grown in lowland climates like Sarapiquí, are harvested, cleaned, and shipped fresh. Coffee, in contrast, is a longer game. Grown in the highlands, it must be hand-picked, fermented, dried, roasted, packaged, and often exported multiple times before reaching the consumer. Each step adds complexity, but also the opportunity to add value. The coffee supply chain involves more middlemen, while pineapples often go straight from the grower to the exporter.
At the farm we visited, sustainability is central. Unlike conventional pineapple farming, which can rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, this farm uses organic compost (applied on top of the plant), rotates crops every four years to preserve soil health, and even makes homemade bug spray using garlic and chili. A threat that pineapple plantations face is getting too much water. This can ruin the pineapples and trigger fungus.
The human side of agriculture is just as important. In Sarapiquí, about 85% of plantation workers are from Nicaragua, drawn to Costa Rica by the promise of steady work. Here, they work five days a week, eight hours a day, earning around $30 per day. Compared to coffee farms in the highlands, where labor is also physically demanding but often seasonal and tied to harvest times, pineapple work offers more consistent employment. However, coffee pickers are sometimes paid by volume, which can reward faster workers with higher pay. If I had to choose, I might lean toward working on a coffee plantation. While the pay may be less consistent, the cooler climate and the sense of rhythm around the harvest season might make the job feel more rewarding and connected to tradition. Coffee farms also often have a stronger cooperative or community feel—something that appeals to me personally.
