Frente Amplio (FA) lawmaker, Edgardo Araya, along with several groups representing communities that claim to have suffered from environmental and other damage due to pineapple production, have presented a draft decree that would put a moratorium on the expansion of monoculture pineapple plantations for the next five years.
Araya said that such plantations have caused significant environmental damage as well as serious harm to the health of people living in nearby communities, and that such plantations and growers have operated with impunity.
The lawmaker is also calling for a new one-dollar-per-box tax for each box of exported pineapples.
In 2013, pineapple exports generated US$834.2 million, which is 1.7% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Source: Inside Costa Rica