La construcción de la calidad del café y del banano en Costa Rica. Una perspectiva histórica (1890-1950)

Abstract

This essay argues that quality is a socio-historical construct. In Costa Rica, discourses about the historical construction of coffee and banana product quality appeared thanks to complex processes involving many factors, practices, actors, landscapes, institutions, and technologies in a transnational framework. Discourses on product quality may be studied from different points of view. In this paper, we analyse the discourse of both indirect and direct participants of the coffee and banana supply chains, and the discourse on the importance of the final quality of both products. We also high1ight the significance of agro-ecological particularities, post-harvest practices and marketing, along with changes in agricultural production and processing.