Coffee production in Costa Rica

Coffee production has played a key role in Costa Rica's history and continues to be important to the country's economy. In 2006, coffee was Costa Rica's number three export,^[1] after being the number one cash crop export for several decades. In 1997, the agriculture sector employed 28 percent of the labor force and comprised 20 percent of Costa Rica's total GNP.^[2] Production increased from 158,000 tons in 1988 to 168,000 tons in 1992. The largest growing areas are in the provinces of San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Puntarenas, and Cartago. The coffee is exported to other countries in the world and is also exported to cities in Costa Rica.

As a small country, Costa Rica now provides under 1% of the world's coffee production.^[3] In 2015, the value of its coffee exports was US$305.9 million, a small part of the total agricultural exports of US$2.7 billion or of the total of all exports which was US$12.6 billion.^[4][5] Coffee production increased by 13.7% percent in 2015–2016, declined by 17.5% in 2016–2017 but was expected to increase by about 15% in the subsequent year.^[6]