Bananas

Costa Rica became the first Central American nation to plant bananas. Banana exportation grew so rapidly that a railroad was built in 1890 to attract more foreign capital. In 1889 Minor C. Keith, a 23 year old banana plantation farmer, merged his company with the Boston Fruit Company and formed the giant United Fruit Company. Due Costa Rica´s banana boom Costa Rica became the world´s largest producer of bananas by 1911.
Today CR banana plantation average 50 million boxes of bananas per year making Costa Rica the second biggest exporter of bananas in the world behind Ecuador. Like coffee plantations, bananas are manually cut from the stalks. However, they are transported mechanically down the rows of the fields to a central location where they are sorted, washed, and put into boxes.