Banana Plant – Doka Estate, San Luis de Sabanilla, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica

Banana trees are used to provide shade to coffee plants in some fields. Bananas were introduced to Costa Rica by Minor Keith. He was a US businessman who built the first railroad from the Central Valley to the Caribbean port of Limón, greatly increasing coffee exports. Today 90% of Costa Rica's crop is exported and only 10% of its coffee is consumed locally. In the early years, planting and harvesting coffee was the Vargas family's sole focus. Over time, they became involved in processing and drying the beans. Still later, they began to directly export their crop. Although much of the processing machinery used at Doka Estate originated in the 19th century, Santa Eduviges also has a website and uses the internet to support its international sales.