Costa Rican Coffee May Go Unharvested As Pandemic Creates Migrant Worker Shortage

Coffee connoisseurs across the world prize Costa Rica’s gourmet beans, but local farmers warn that if a coronavirus-induced foreign labour shortage is not resolved soon, the raw material used to make countless lattes and espressos could spoil on the bush.

The prospect of a bumper crop this year for the relatively small Central American coffee producer has grown bittersweet as fears grow the harvest may not be picked by the mostly Nicaraguan and Panamanian hands who traditionally do the work.

Farmers blame travel restrictions imposed by the government to bar potentially infected visitors from southern neighbour Panama, where the virus has spread widely, and from northern neighbour Nicaragua, where lax containment measures have likely caused a much bigger-than-reported outbreak.

Labourers from Panama and Nicaragua typically account for about two-thirds of Costa Rica’s coffee crop workforce.

ESM