Bananas were introduced into Costa Rica sometime after the Spanish invasion. According to Info Costa Rica website, in 1899, Tropical Trading and Transport Co. merged with the Boston Fruit Co. to form the United Fruit Co., which became a dominant force of the political economies of the "banana republic". Costa Rica is also known as the coffee republic as well. Today, Costa Rica´s main exports are not bananas or coffee anymore, but integrated circuits and modular circuits. As of 2005, Costa Rica produces 2.2 million metric tons of bananas. Costa Rica has Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, and Fyffes.
There are banana trees around San Jose. We see them on the side of the road and there was even one in the back of a gift shop we went to that had a garden.
When we went to Cinde, the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency which is a private non-profit apolitical organization, they talked about how they are trying to get new investors to come to Costa Rica to products and export to other countries. I don´t have their PowerPoint that they are going to send to us that talked about the numbers involved in the industries including bananas and coffee.
I will have to research bananas more. I can´t seem to find a lot of information about them now.
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