The Standard Fruit Company announced this Tuesday the closure of two banana farms in Costa Rica and the dismissal of 111 workers due to the fall of the dollar against the local currency.
The company indicated in a statement that the farms are located in the province of Limón (Caribbean) and that the workers were paid their respective compensations and some were offered work on other farms or temporary contracts.
“It seems that neither the productive sector nor employment in agricultural areas is something that the Central Bank is taking into account and there have been no actions to balance what is happening, despite there being tools available to counteract it,” the statement said. the signature.
The company maintains a fruit production and export operation in Costa Rica that employs 8,000 people directly and 50,000 indirectly.
The company assured that the dollar situation in Costa Rica is generating a lack of competitiveness in the productive sector, which is being taken advantage of by other competing countries.
In recent months, various productive sectors have asked the Government and the Central Bank for actions to stabilize the dollar exchange rate, which has been plummeting since mid-2022 to reach values not seen for more than a decade.
The dollar reached its peak on July 1, 2022 when it was trading at 693.69 colones, but since then it began to decline until it stood at 516.86 at the end of January 2024, which represents a variation of 25%.
This Tuesday the dollar is trading at 521.79 colones.
Other sectors that have complained about the appreciation of the colon with respect to the dollar are the National Chamber of Tourism, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, industrial entrepreneurs and others in agriculture.
The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, has said that the situation reflects the strength of the economy and the local currency, while the president of the Central Bank, Roger Madrigal, has defended the entity’s monetary policy and has also assured that the rate The exchange rate reflects the reality of the market. EFE