Coffee in Costa Rica

Coffee in Costa RicaCoffee industry was the main activity during this period.

After 1850 coffee industry was stimulated by the high prices

Expansion of the agricultural frontier

Cultivation initially concentrated around San Jos, after 1850, extended to Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela.

1830 conquer of virgin lands in the western portion of the Central Valley( coffee after 1860)

After 1890 coffee flourished in the valleys of the Reventazn and Turrialba. 1930 coffee was being planted in San Carlos, Nicoya and Tarraz, but most of the harvest continued to come from San Jos and environs

Coffee was an injection of progress into the social and economic life of Costa RicaAllow the import of fashionable goods and technology The opening of new roads and the improvement of the old ones.( specially that wich linked San Jos and the Pacific Cost)

Diversification of the internal market ( new activities coffee transportation, sale of food stuffs)

Social and Political EffectsThe losers in this process were poor peasants, and indigenous communities, hurt by the privatizations of common lands. Most of natives went to Talamanca. The destiny of the poor peasants was wage labor.

Conformation of a Coffee Elite, that also had the political power.A new class of merchant families, the cafetaleros, emerged. They monopolized credits (e.g. loans to pay for the coffee harvest), constructed beneficios and controlled import and export trade.

At the beneficios the coffee was collected, stripped of its skin and husk and prepared for export.

Environmental effects

Agricultural colonization replaced jungles and forests with planted fields and active pastures.