From 2016 to 2020, retail coffee giant Starbucks plans to open 15 more cafes in Costa Rica, a business move that will generate more than 300 jobs. Such was the statement made by Monica Bianchini, general manager of Starbucks in Costa Rica, as she inaugurated the 8th location in our country.

According to a news report filed by Marvin Barquero for national newspaper La Nacion, Ms. Bianchini explained that Starbucks wants to expand at a rate of three cafes per year in Costa Rica. The eighth location was inaugurated in the wealthy Los Yoses neighborhood, located just east of the downtown district of San Jose.

Before the end of this year, Starbucks plans to inaugurate two more cafes: one in the Central Avenue pedestrian boulevard that bisects Downtown San Jose, and the other one in the upscale community of San Rafael de Escazu, located in the western suburbs of the capital city. Those two locations will be number nine and ten in Costa Rica, which means that our country will have 25 Starbucks cafes by 2020. By way of comparison, Starbucks recently inaugurated its 500th location in Mexico.

Ms. Bianchini did not disclose to La Nacion any information related to the size of the investment required to open a Starbucks cafe in Costa Rica, nor did she disclose the percentage of coffee grown in our country that is served by their baristas here. By the end of 2015, the coffee giant will have more than 160 staff members on payroll.

The locations of the next 15 Starbucks cafes that will be inaugurate from 2016 on are not known at this time; however, Ms. Bianchini hinted at the possibility of some of them being located outside of the Central Valley, perhaps in coastal communities with high concentrations of tourists and expats.

In addition to the aforementioned cafes, Starbucks also maintains a coffee farm and agricultural research center in Costa Rica, on the skirts of the Poas volcano, province of Alajuela.