Agrotourism Could Decolonize Cacao in Costa Rica

How to make ethical choices when you take a Costa Rican chocolate tour.

​If you travel to Costa Rica, chances are you will want to take a food tour. You will be guided through the experience of cultivating whatever crop is most profitable in that region of the country—coffee in shady Monteverde, chocolate in sunny La Fortuna. The tour guides will tell you a beautiful story about what coffee or chocolate means to their country, but they will likely leave out some of the ugly history behind the politics of crop cultivation. For example, most of today’s cacao plantations were once banana plantations, taken advantage of by the United Fruit Company at the turn of the 20th century. If you’re going on a chocolate tour, you might want to know the complicated history of chocolate in Costa Rica.

Cacao has been a staple of Central America since Preclassical times. Indigenous communities in Costa Rica have called it “blessed by the gods,” showing its profound cultural importance. At the turn of the 20th century, the United Fruit Company had avoided investing in cacao, and was funneling all its efforts into banana plantations. This did not last long, as a disease plagued Costa Rica’s banana plantations in 1916. After the cultivation of diseased bananas, cacao was used as replacement crop. 

This set a precedent for how the United Fruit Company would treat both banana and cacao finceros and plantation workers in the future. Cacao was treated as a “backup plan” for bananas. Whenever banana plantations were destroyed by disease or earthquakes, cacao was a reliable crop for the Costa Rican economy to fall back on. Beyond whitewashing both cacao and banana production, the United Fruit Company ruined land and disrespected the earth. They spread chemicals to kill off the pests that were hurting their profit but only ended up further harming cacao yields. The destruction caused by the United Fruit Company has continued to impede cacao cultivation into the 21st century and harm marginalized communities like rural and indigenous Costa Ricans.

​Cacao is cultivated in the rural areas of Costa Rica. Thesecommunities do not have access to important social programs and infrastructure. The only way for these communities to support themselves is to cultivate and sell cacao. Cacao cultivation is important not only for the overall GDP of the country, but also for the finceros who work on cacao plantations and the indigenous communities who have passed cacao cultivation practices down from generation to generation. 

Today, cacao cultivation in Costa Rica is on the decline in these marginalized communities. Looking at a high concentration of poverty in the indigenous territories of Costa Rica, experts have theorized that the communal socioeconomic status and low cacao production are linked. This is due to a lack of income diversification. The reliance on one good and one good only has worsened the already difficult conditions that these communities have struggled with since the 20th century.

Experts have proposed solution for this problem: the diversification of income through agrotourism. Instead of relying on foreign investors to create chocolate tours, the finceros are creating their own tourist experiences. Through agrotourism, Costa Ricans working on cacao plantations can create more jobs, bring in more income, and gain autonomy over their work. Because Costa Rica is a large tourist destination today, much of the country’s economy is reliant on foreign dollars. This way, the tourists’ dollars go directly toward supporting rural and indigenous Costa Rican communities rather than foreigners.  

This reliance on neocolonialism will not go away overnight, but agrotourism could be the first step for Costa Rican finceros to take control over their socioeconomic situation and develop a narrative to share with others. Tourists can then make ethical decisions regarding where to spend their money when visiting Costa Rica, choosing to support local Costa Ricans instead of Western tourism companies. By supporting local businesses, the profit goes directly to the community. At the same time, this allows the locals to share their culture with tourists and construct their own narrative. Cacao finceros can raise awareness for their struggles and the injustice that has persevered in Costa Rica for a century. They can speak up forspringboard for indigenous. In addition to diversifying their income, the finceros are broadcasting their voices in Costa Rican society.

To Costa Ricans, cacao signifies the intersection between culture, the whitewashing of plantations, and the Costa Rican economy. Despite being a symbol of oppression by the United Fruit Company, cacao also brings hope to the marginalized communities of Costa Rica through agrotourism. If you’re looking for a tourist attraction in Costa Rica, or anywhere in the Banana Republic, consider looking for local businesses instead of large tour groups. Search for websites that describe a family history. Check Airbnb for local experiences. Ask locals if they know anyone in the tourism industry who you can support. Not only are these choices more ethical, but they might also give you a more personal experience that you will remember forever.

References 

Dahlquist, R.M., Whelan, M.P., Winowiecki, L., et al. Incorporating livelihoods in biodiversity conservation: a case study of cacao agroforestry systems in Talamanca, Costa Rica. Biodiversity Conservation 16, 2311–2333, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9192-4 

Young, Allen M. The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao. Smithsonian Nature Book. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994