Juicy and delicious oranges that could rival those grown in California, Florida, Brazil, ad Spain are being grown right here in Costa Rica, particularly in certain coffee farms in Guanacaste where citrus trees are being introduced to break up the monoculture practice of cultivating a single crop. Oranges are now the fastest-growing crops in Costa Rica; in 2012, production grew by more than 75 percent compared to 2011.

According to a news report by Gilda Gonzalez Sandoval of business weekly El Financiero, the Ministry of Agriculture (Spanish initials:MAG) estimates that about 280,000 metric tons of oranges were harvested last year in Costa Rica. Coffee farmers in Guanacaste are particularly pleased with this development for various reasons. First, agriculture has seen a vertiginous drop in the region due to the growth of the real estate and tourism industries. Second, the planting of citrus trees has been carefully managed to yield up to 800 trees per hectare, which makes coffee farms more bird-friendly. Third, coffee farms in Guanacaste affected by the Hemileia vastatrix fungus (coffee rust, or roya in Spanish) in 2013 found a new cash crop in oranges.

At this point, farming co-ops such as Coopecerroazul in Nanadayure, province of Guanacaste, stand to benefit the most from this relatively unexploited cash crop. For example, this Coopecerroazul has 82 orange growers who have picked 5.5 million units this year. More than 95 percent of oranges are sold in wholesale markets around the Central Valley, where they are quickly scooped up by citrus lovers.

It’s not just Guanacaste that is finding success with oranges. In the Acosta canton, province of San Jose, MAG citrus experts are evaluating how certain orange strains brought from California adjust to the local conditions. There are several microclimates across Costa Rica where orange cultivation could thrive, and this could lead to an eventual citrus certification program for exports.