Costa Rican coffee gains value in foreign markets while harvest volumes decline in recent years

Costa Rica's coffee harvest fell 51.4% between the 1998-1999 cycle and the projection for 2025-2026. (Infobae Centroamérica/Emerson Del Cid)Coffee retains its place among Costa Rica's agricultural exports, although the activity is undergoing a contraction that is reshaping the country's productive map. Higher international prices sustained foreign income, but the coffee harvest has been cut nearly in half in recent years, with effects varying by region. The activity still involves some 25,000 families and retains significant weight in Costa Rica's export offering, behind pineapple and bananas. However, the reduction of planted areas, rising input costs, and climate difficulties limited the volume available for international sales. In the 1998-1999 harvest, the country collected 3,278,716 fanegas of coffee cherries. For the 2025-2026 cycle, the projected volume fell to 1,591,850 fanegas, a drop of 51.4%. These figures were published by the newspaper La Nación. A fanega equals 20 cajuelas of coffee cherries and yields, after processing, roughly one 46-kilo bag of green coffee. Coffee production involves some 25,000 families and ranks behind pineapple and bananas in Costa Rica's export offering. (Reuters)The decline extended to all producing regions, though with varying intensity. Turrialba accumulated an 83.9% drop over the last 27 harvests, followed by the Northern zone, where the decline reached 80.32%. The Central Valley reduced its production 62.6% over the same period. The Western zone recorded a drop of 44.9%; Coto Brus, 42.4%; Pérez Zeledón, 41.5%; and Los Santos, 38.9%. Despite this decline, Los Santos accounts for 35% of the national coffee-growing area. The Western zone accounts for 23%; the Central Valley, 14%; Pérez Zeledón, 13%; and Coto Brus, 10%. The lower output has economic and productive causes. From before 2000 to 2025, Costa Rica lost some 31,000 hectares of coffee plantations. Rising land values, changes in land use, and competition with other activities reduced the space devoted to the crop. Between 2014 and 2025, the planted area shrank by more than 11,000 hectares, while national production fell by about 16%. The trend was not uniform across the territory: Turrialba and the Northern zone suffered reductions of close to 50% during that period, while Tarrazú recorded a drop of around 4%. The Los Santos region accounts for 35% of the national coffee-growing area despite the country's productive decline. (Infobae Centroamérica/Emerson Del Cid)Lower production coexisted with an increase in income from foreign sales. The United States accounted for 40% of the revenue generated by Costa Rican coffee exports in 2025, which totaled $469 million. The European Union represented 38.7% of that income and Asia, 9.1%. China and South Korea gained presence among Asian destinations, along with Japan. The increase in export value is mainly due to a rise in international prices, which offset the reduction in the volume traded. The price of coffee on the New York market rose from about $120 per quintal in 2007 to an average of nearly $300 in 2025. However, that improvement did not translate directly to the farms. For an operation with a yield of 20 fanegas per hectare, the cost per fanega rose from ₡46,573 in 2006-2007 to ₡105,267 in 2024-2025. The result shows growing pressure on the sector's profitability. Fertilizers, labor, plantation renewal, pests, and diseases drove up costs. Added to this are higher temperatures and changes in rainfall, which affect some coffee-growing regions more intensely. The challenge for the activity is reflected in a gap: Costa Rican coffee retains recognition and better prices in foreign markets, but the country has an ever-smaller harvest with which to meet that demand.