Costa Rican coffee exports rose nearly 53% in November to reach 34,024 60-kg bags compared to the same month last year, according to the Instituto del Café de Costa Rica (ICAFE) – the country’s national coffee institute.
Costa Rica, known for its high-quality beans, shipped 48,334 bags during the first two months of the current 2017-2018 harvesting season, down about 12% compared to the same two-month period in the previous cycle.
The coffee harvest season in Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) runs from October through March, with the best new season coffees usually arrive in the US from around April (El Salvador, Nicaragua) through to summertime of July for fine Guatemala and Costa Rica.
The first production of Costa Rica coffee can be dated back to 1779 when it was introduced by Spanish colonists who brought it from Arabia. This is why the coffee beans are often referred to as “coffea arabica”.
