A peasant family in the Sierra
Courtesy Inter-American Foundation (Miguel Sayago)

Agriculture and fishing were the country's largest employers in the late 1980s, providing nearly half of all exporÍÍÍÍt earnings. Including livestock raising, forestry, and fishing, agriculture generated almost 16 percent of the GDP in 1986 and nearly 18 percent in 1987. The three principal export crops--bananas, coffee, and cocoa--alone accounted for 2.4 percent of the total GDP in 1986, while livestock raising contributed 5.3 percent of the GDP, and forestry and fishing contributed 1.1 and 1.9 percent, respectively.

Data as of 1989