Bananas

I love bananas. I actually just had one for breakfast this morning. My host Mama Carmen poured honey ontop and it was delicious. This sparked my interest in learning more about the banana industry and how they've come about in Costa Rica.
I just learned that bananas have been part of the Caribbean since 1870. The export of the fruit began after after the Atlantic railway was finished in 1890. Costa Rica became the largest producer of bananas in 1911 and today, the industry is one of the top foreign currency earning industries in Costa Rica. When bananas began being exported from Central America, 12 million stems were sent to the US. In 1955, 1,389,000 tons were exported, with 290,000 being sent from Costa Rica.
In 1985, a man known as Luis Alberto Monge issued the banana expansion decree which brought in national companies and caused what was known as the "uncontrolled banana expansion". Costa Rica doubled its banana production in less than seven years. The total went up to 103 million boxes in 1994.
As you can tell, banana production has grown greatly in Costa Rica. Next time, I'm going to look into how this expansion has affected the country in terms of the land, growing conditions, etc.

A side note: Three banana brands that we know in the US are Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte. They are all called "the big three" and branch from the the United Brands Company. Just the other day, my host Papa Fernando told us that we have Chiquita bananas where his son lives in Florida. He was really excited to know that we eat food from Costa Rica back in the states. It was kinda cool.