Lilliam QUIRÓS-ARIAS, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Costa Rica
Coffee is an export product of great importance in Costa Rica, traditionally concentrated in the hands of thousands of small producers and distributed in eight coffee growing regions. It is a highly intensive activity in the use of labor in all phases of production, especially in the harvesting of the fruit, for which the temporary migration to these coffee-growing regions offers work approximately nine months of the year. Starting in the 1990s, the loss of dynamism of the traditional agricultural sector led to an abandonment by the local workforce, which led to the scarce availability of national labor and a high dependency on labor from the Central American countries, mainly Nicaragua and Panama. With the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and the migratory restrictions imposed, the availability of coffee pickers worsens, which led to the establishment of migratory strategies to deal with the coffee harvest during the 2020-2021 harvest, as well as the reinstatement of local labor. It analyzes how this dynamic occurs in the coffee activity of the mentioned period, and the measures implemented to ensure the availability of labor during the pandemic. Data from the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (ICAFÉ), Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX), Migration and Foreigners, as well as interviews with coffee producers are analyzed.
Mots clés : agriculture|coffee|workforce|COVID-19|Costa Rica
A102875LQ