The biggest expectation I had for Costa Rica was trying their world famous coffee. Shocking enough for me was that getting a good cup of coffee was hit and miss. I did learn that most of the good coffee is exported to Europe and the United States, leaving the less than par coffee here for the locals because they can charge lower prices for bad coffee.
With Bananas and coffee being the two biggest crops in Costa Rica, it’s amazing to me how completely different they are. In terms of production coffee needs to grown high in the mountains at lower temperatures, while bananas need direct sunlight and 80 degree temperatures. It’s also amazing to see who produces each product. On our tour through Costa Rica I noticed that coffee is grown by some big producers but for the most part it is grown by small farms and then sold to larger producers. Bananas on the other hand are mainly produced by big companies like Chiquita and Dole. I tend to think that coffee is more a part of the fair trade market because there are more producers of coffee than bananas. I would say the biggest difference between coffee and bananas is their sustainability. Even though coffee and bananas are not sustainable I feel that coffee is "less bad". When I am in the grocery store I never see organic bananas but I do occasionally find organic coffee, and as we all know organic is much more sustainable in the long run than products grown with pesticides.
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