Costa Rican Coffee Harvesting

Our ripe Costa Rican coffee cherries are picked by hand as they have been since the early 1800's. What has changed are the hands that do the picking. In the San José province southeast of the capital, most of the coffee pickers today are Guaymí Indians. Some are from reserves located in Costa Rica, while others emigrate from Panamá for the coffee harvests. In the provinces of Alajuela and Heredia, most of the coffee pickers are from Nicaragua. Unskilled Costa Ricans today prefer to work in light industry.