The economy is based on agriculture. The main two
cultivations are coffee and bananas, and besides them sugar cane, cacao and
tabacco. Banana plantations produce around 50 million boxes of bananas per year,
making Costa Rica the second biggest exporter of bananas in the world behind
Ecuador. 12% of the land area is planted with crops, 45 % is given to pasture
and only 27 % is forested. The majority of farmlands is small.
In latest years the increase of nontraditional export good
is marked such like textiles (because of the preferential tariffs on them from
USA. The other nontraditional export goods belong: strawberries, flowers,
papajas and pharmaceutical.
The vital role in Costa Rica economy plays The United
Central America Market. It lies in customless trade of industial products, the
tax reduced rates for industrial companies and low customs between countries of
that region.
In 1999 Costa Rica economy raised up to an unprecedented
8.3 percent increase of the Gross Domestic Product -the highest in Latin
America. It has signed the free trade agreements with Chile, Mexico, Panama, Dominicana and Canada. Trade negotiations are ongoing or planned with Jamaica, Taivan and Trinidad and Tobago.
According to Association of American Chambers of Commerce,
Costa Rica labour has been rated as the most productive and fast learning in
Latin America.
According to the most recent annual world report of investment of United Nation Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Costa Rica is among six countries in the world that are examples regarding of attraction of direct foreign investment. The study points out Costa Rica ability to attract a steady flow of foreign investment based on a national strategy that invest on education and training of labour within a framework of political stability.
