Historical context of the cessation of banana settlement in the southern zone of Costa Rica (1972-1985)

Abstract

The present study analyzes the economic causes that incited the Compañía Bananera de Costa Rica to abandon its banana plantations in this country’s southern region (Corredores, Golfito and Osa). The research offers a historical overview of the period between 1972 and 1985; in this sense, the economic causes are studied and an emphasis on productivity, profitability, and the international conditions for banana trading and production costs is placed. This study also entails the process by which the banana crops in this region were substituted by African-oil palm. To conduct the research, the researchers recurred to primary sources from important documents in the files of the Compañía Bananera de Costa Rica. In such documentation, a statistic control in the production of both African-oil palm and banana was kept; this provided valuable quantitative data to objectively approach this investigation. The results reveal that the ceasing of business activities by this multinational company was the product of internal factors intertwined with low productivity due to the overexploitation of land, as well as external factors linked to the oversupply when the banana was traded at this period. It is imperative to point out that the labor strike-, which is believed to be the main cause of the abandonment- only played a determining role in the phenomenon under study, for it justifies the breach of contracts that expired in 1988. Undoubtedly, this event changed the production dynamics in the Brunca Region and forced the Costa Rican state to look for courses of action to mitigate the problems originated.