Costa Rica fresh produce export calendar

Every week of the year. Costa Rica is the largest pineapple exporter in the world by a wide margin, and MD2 out of the Caribbean lowlands is what most of Europe eats.

There is no season to plan around, so the questions worth asking are about the container rather than the calendar. Pineapple is chilling-sensitive: too cold and internal browning develops that is invisible until the fruit is cut, which is a claim that arrives weeks after the container did.

Year-round out of Moín, on standing programmes. Costa Rica has among the most consistent banana quality of any origin and prices accordingly.

Moín’s rebuilt terminal is the reason this works at the volume it does — it is the one part of the Central American Caribbean coast with the depth and the crane capacity for the ships the trade now uses.

Roughly December to April, out of Guanacaste, grown for the North American and European winter. This is the one genuinely seasonal thing on the Costa Rican calendar.

Melon and pineapple compete for the same reefer equipment in exactly these months, which is the practical reason a January booking out of Costa Rica is harder to get than a July one even though pineapple ships all year.

Year-round, at modest volume. Costa Rican papaya mostly serves North America, where the short lane makes the fruit’s narrow transit tolerance manageable.

Sea programmes into Europe exist but are small: the voyage is at the edge of what papaya picked at colour break will survive, and most European volume still arrives by air.