What are Costa Rica’s biggest exports in 2024?
Costa Rica’s export story in 2024 is led by medical and precision manufacturing first, and tropical agriculture second. Goods exports closed 2024 at about US$19.9 billion, with precision and medical equipment as the top sector at 44% of goods exports, followed by agriculture and food industry shipments. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
Here’s the simple headline: the same country you picture as rainforests and surfboards is also a global supplier of high-value medical components and devices—and that category alone is larger than every fruit, coffee, and food preparation line combined. (Trading Economics)
How big are exports, really, and why do totals vary by source?
Goods exports for 2024 cluster around US$19.88–19.894 billion in the commonly cited UN Comtrade/PROCOMER reporting. (Trading Economics)
If you ever see totals in the low US$30 billions, that’s usually because the source is blending goods + services (services like business services, travel, and IT). PROCOMER reports services exports of US$12.190 billion through Q3 2024, which helps explain why “overall exports” can look much bigger when services are included. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
Why do medical devices dominate Costa Rica’s export mix?
Medical and precision manufacturing leads because Costa Rica has built a specialised ecosystem that rewards quality, compliance, and consistency. The country’s export agencies regularly point to medical devices as the top goods export, with strong growth and a broad set of destination markets. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
Key reasons this sector keeps winning:
- Cluster effect: once enough device firms arrive, suppliers, talent, and know-how start to compound.
- Regulatory discipline: med-tech supply chains live or die on documentation, traceability, and process control.
- Nearshore logic: for North America, Costa Rica can be faster and more resilient than a long, multi-stop supply chain.
- Policy and investment focus: Costa Rica has actively positioned itself as a med-tech hub over multiple decades. (USITC)
What counts as “optical, technical, and medical apparatus” in plain English?
It’s a wide basket, but it basically means “high-precision products where tiny mistakes are expensive.” In Costa Rica’s case, it’s heavily driven by medical devices and components, including fast-growing lines such as needles and catheters, other medical-use devices, and prosthetics. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
If you’re trying to picture it, think:
- Cleanroom assembly lines
- Packaging designed to stay sterile, labelled, and traceable
- High-precision plastic moulding and micro-components
- Quality systems that look more like aviation than agriculture
This is the part of Costa Rica that doesn’t make postcards, but absolutely pays the bills.
Which agricultural exports still carry Costa Rica’s global brand?
Farms still matter—massively—because they anchor jobs, land use, logistics, and a big chunk of the country’s identity abroad. In the 2024 goods picture, agriculture is the second-largest export sector, and the country’s leading named products include pineapple and bananas, alongside coffee and key processed-food lines. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
The “big fruit” reality, in practical terms:
- Pineapple and bananas are consistently among the most prominent individual goods exports. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
- Coffee remains a high-signal product culturally and commercially, even if it’s smaller than the headline med-tech numbers. (Trading Economics)
- Processed foods (like syrups/concentrates and fruit juices) help Costa Rica export more value than raw ingredients alone. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
What are Costa Rica’s top 25 export categories in 2024 (with values and shares)?
This list is a practical way to see how lopsided (in a good way) the export mix has become: one super-category at the top, then a long, diverse tail. Figures below are based on UN Comtrade category totals as presented by Trading Economics; percentages are approximate shares of total goods exports (~US$19.88B). (Trading Economics)
- Optical/photo/technical/medical apparatus — US$8.75B (~44.0%) (Trading Economics)
- Edible fruits & nuts — US$2.78B (~14.0%) (Trading Economics)
- Miscellaneous edible preparations — US$1.12B (~5.6%) (Trading Economics)
- Electrical/electronic equipment — US$839.12M (~4.2%) (Trading Economics)
- Plastics — US$543.97M (~2.7%) (Trading Economics)
- Vegetable/fruit/nut food preparations — US$486.41M (~2.4%) (Trading Economics)
- Pharmaceutical products — US$452.50M (~2.3%) (Trading Economics)
- Coffee, tea, mate & spices — US$356.42M (~1.8%) (Trading Economics)
- Rubber & rubber articles — US$330.11M (~1.7%) (Trading Economics)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils & waxes — US$289.31M (~1.5%) (Trading Economics)
- Edible vegetables & roots/tubers — US$276.06M (~1.4%) (Trading Economics)
- Iron & steel — US$228.57M (~1.1%) (Trading Economics)
- Cereal/flour/starch/milk preparations — US$218.53M (~1.1%) (Trading Economics)
- Articles of iron or steel — US$213.28M (~1.1%) (Trading Economics)
- Machinery (incl. reactors/boilers category) — US$174.93M (~0.9%) (Trading Economics)
- Meat & edible meat offal — US$164.21M (~0.8%) (Trading Economics)
- Dairy, eggs, honey & edible animal products — US$161.37M (~0.8%) (Trading Economics)
- Miscellaneous chemical products — US$161.35M (~0.8%) (Trading Economics)
- Miscellaneous manufactured articles — US$160.31M (~0.8%) (Trading Economics)
- Tanning/dyeing extracts & pigments — US$144.90M (~0.7%) (Trading Economics)
- Live trees, plants & cut flowers — US$144.16M (~0.7%) (Trading Economics)
- Sugars & sugar confectionery — US$143.57M (~0.7%) (Trading Economics)
- Pearls, precious stones/metals & coins — US$139.29M (~0.7%) (Trading Economics)
- Beverages, spirits & vinegar — US$116.56M (~0.6%) (Trading Economics)
- Paper & paperboard; pulp of paper and board articles — US$114.47M (~0.6%) (Trading Economics)
Who buys Costa Rica’s exports the most?
The United States is the #1 destination by a wide margin. In 2024, exports to the United States were about US$9.53B, with the Netherlands next at about US$1.71B, followed by key regional partners such as Guatemala and others. (Trading Economics)
A quick “voice search” answer if someone asks on the spot:
- Yes, the US is Costa Rica’s biggest export customer, and it’s not close. (Trading Economics)
What does this export mix mean for Costa Rica’s future?
It means Costa Rica is running two different kinds of competitive advantages at once: precision manufacturing and premium agriculture. In the best version of the next decade, the country keeps expanding med-tech sophistication while pushing agriculture further up the value chain with better processing, branding, and logistics—so more of the margin stays local.
Watch-outs worth remembering:
- Heavy reliance on one mega-category can be a risk if global demand shifts.
- The long tail of categories is a strength: it spreads exposure across products and markets.
- Skills and training matter more every year as exports become less about volume and more about standards.
FAQ
What is Costa Rica’s #1 export category in 2024?
Optical/photo/technical/medical apparatus is #1, worth about US$8.75B (around 44% of goods exports). (Trading Economics)
Are Costa Rica’s exports mainly agricultural?
No—agriculture is huge culturally, but high-value medical/precision goods dominate the export totals. (Trading Economics)
What are Costa Rica’s biggest agricultural export categories?
Edible fruits and nuts is the largest farm-linked category (about US$2.78B in 2024), with flagship products including pineapple and bananas. (Trading Economics)
Who is Costa Rica’s biggest export customer?
The United States is the largest destination, at about US$9.53B in 2024. (Trading Economics)
Why do some sources show much higher “total exports” numbers?
Because some totals combine goods and services, and Costa Rica exports a lot of services as well. (Exportar desde Costa Rica)
