Exports

As of the beginning of 2016, exports accounted for almost 7% of Costa Rica’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and another 14% of its total labor force.  All of the major exports from this country revolve around the natural resources grown from the land.  They are bananas, pineapple, coffee, sugar, rice, vegetables, tropical fruits, ornamental plants, corn, rice, and actually technology.  In recent years, Costa Rica has lead the race in that field.  90% of the countries energy is green, and they sell those ideas to larger countries for a quite reasonable profit.

There are other exports as well, these are not the only ones, but the rest are a much smaller portion.  Overall, Costa Rica falls 55th in the total export money which is very high for such a small country.  They are actually predicting, that even though the banana company is down, they still expect to make more money in exports than the year before, which is very good for the GDP of a country.

Natural Resources

One of Costa Rica’s major economic sources are natural resources such as its fertile land, hydroelectric power, and fisheries products. One-fourth of Costa Rica’s land is national forests and it is known for its bananas, pineapples and coffee bean plants, and many other.

One of Costa Rica’s well known products is is coffee beans. The country is one of the world’s primary source for coffee.

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Along with its crops, Costa Rica also has amazing rain forests, which helps with crops, plants, and flowers.

 

The interesting fact is that is also known for its beautiful people as natural resources. The government of this country puts the education and healthcare provided to its people as their main porosity. This results in a very working, educated society that contributes to it’s industries.

ahttp://www.liveincostarica.com/blog/2013/11/what-is-costa-ricas-greatest-natural-resource.html

Background Note: Costa Rica. (2005). Background Notes on Countries of the World: Costa Rica, 1

 

 

 

 

 

Real Estate

Costa Rica’s higher-end property market has been growing at a substantial rate because of foreign homebuyers moving in to the country. In San Jose the average listing price of houses has increased 6.2% per square meter in August of 2016, a 0.4% increase from last year and condominium prices have risen 3.6% from last year. Costa Rica’s property market is highly dependent on the U.S. economy because it represents the highest number of homebuyers. “As the U.S. heads up, so do we” said Shawn Ferguson of Coldwell Banker. The most popular properties being bought by foreigners are in gated communities and condominiums. 80% of sales in Costa Rica were $200,000 and above in the last three years. The most popular places to buy property are in the Central Valley which is the greater metropolitan area and includes most of the businesses. The average price of a 3-bedroom home in Santa Ana is $212,000 U.S. dollars at this moment, and prices continue to rise. In 2013 sales activity started to rise when property sales increased by 14% from 2012 and property demand has been abundant ever since.

http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Latin-America/Costa-Rica

Manufacturing

Although manufacturing plays a small role in Costa Rica’s economy, it has a wide range of industries and businesses, such as electronic, textile, plastics and chemicals, machinery, and assembly, and much more. Most of the industries are found in San Jose, which is the capital city of Costa Rica. With hydroelectricity being the only source of power, there is a low purchasing for it.

http://philip.greenspun.com/cr/moon/economy

Surprisingly, Cost Rica is also one main manufacturer of baseball.  Despite the fact the baseball is hardly played in Costa Rica, one of its known factories  measures over 54,000 meters squared and has over 600 people workers. The factory makes sporting clothing and baseballs all by hand.

http://costarica-information.com/about-costa-rica/economy/economic-sectors-industries/manufacturing

Tourism as a source of income

Tourism plays a very vital role in Costa Rica’s sources for income.  According to their national institute for tourism, it was ranked fifty sixth in the world for non domestic arrivals into the country.  In 2008 alone, Costa Rica received over two million tourists which accounted for two billion American dollars in profits.  Because of Costa Rica being the “bridge” between North and South America, this means that it has both the Atlantic and Pacific coast.  This is so a guest can get the best of both worlds.

http://costarica-information.com/about-costa-rica/economy/economic-sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-statistics

On top of Costa Rica’s beautiful beaches, other very popular attractions include their huge number of waterfalls sprinkled throughout the forests.  It is home to one of the most popular falls in the entire world, the Celeste waterfall.  It is located in the Tenorio volcano national park.  It is a freshwater ribbon that died teal/baby blue because of the large amounts of sulfur and sodium carbonate.  The water usually appears white in the lake below, but once or twice a year, when the weather is just right, it glows a very beautiful blue that makes it one of the best sites to see in the entire world during these times.

http://costarica.com/trip-ideas/five-best-waterfalls/

There are many other popular areas within the country other than just these few places.  The island is very well known for huge amounts of people migrating to this area, especially in the colder months up north.  According to Costa Rica information54% of the tourists reside in the United States, and two thirds of the time are traveling between the months of November and February.  This means that tourists could very well be traveling to attempt to escape the cold winters.  It also state that 82% of the travelers are highly educated, meaning that they have obtained atleast some sort of college education throughout their career.  It also stated that 43% of the travelers were over the age of 43.  This statistic is on there because it means that they are quite along in their career.

http://costarica-information.com/about-costa-rica/economy/economic-sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-statistics

 

 

Agriculture

Costa Rica’s agriculture has been declining since the 1950’s, but in 1998 it accounted for 15% of the country’s GDP and employed one-fifth of the labor force. About 10% of the country’s land is used for agriculture and agricultural exports make up about 60% of the export flows. Traditional crops like bananas and coffee used to be the country’s primary crops, but a wide range of nontraditional products have made their way to Costa Rica. In the 1990’s coffee averaged about $370 million in export revenue. It only accounted for 4% of total export earnings in 2000. During the 1990’s banana production accounted for $624 in export revenue. Banana production is estimated to generate over 40,000 direct and 100,000 indirect jobs. Nontraditional agricultural goods have been rising in importance over recent years. Most of these goods are export oriented and linked to various forms of agroindustry. Examples are African palm used for the extraction of vegetable cooking oil, and oranges processed for their juice and exported as fluid or concentrate. African palm has been cultivated since the 1970’s, but has strongly increased since the 1990’s. By 1996 over 27,000 hectares were in production generating 422,000 metric tons of African palm. Orange production began as recently as 1990, and started by the construction of 2 processing plants. Production areas doubled in 6 years, reaching 23,500 hectares and 165,000 metric tons. The hearts of palm, ornamental plants, and macadamia nuts are other important nontraditional agricultural products used to generate revenue for Costa Rica.

Read more: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Costa-Rica-AGRICULTURE.html#ixzz4LlozfW4F

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