Photo courtesy of USDA FAS
After an 11% fall in Costa Rican orange production in 2024–25, production is forecast to increase 10% in 2025–26 to 220,000 metric tons (MT). This projection is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS).
PRODUCERS AND PROCESSORS
Two companies, TicoFrut and Del Oro, control most of the production and practically all processing of oranges in Costa Rica. However, there are some medium- and small-sized independent producers in the vicinity of the TicoFrut and Del Oro processing plants.
Smaller independent producers predominantly sell into the domestic fresh fruit market. Smaller producers have been exiting orange production altogether as citrus greening disease (present in Costa Rica since 2011) has spread throughout the country. Greening has led to higher costs of production, lower yields and lower profits or losses.
HIGH-DENSITY HECTARES
The orange area in Costa Rica has declined to 20,000 hectares, from 21,000 hectares in 2023–24.
Farmers have gradually increased the number of trees per hectare by using the Flying Dragon pattern, which supports higher tree density, easier farm management and lower production costs per hectare. This innovation has allowed farmers to significantly increase tree density, moving from 300 to 450 trees/hectare under traditional planting patterns to 800 to 900 trees/hectare with the Flying Dragon.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS
Costa Rica exports most of its orange production as frozen concentrated orange juice. The volume of single-strength fresh orange juice exports has declined in recent years and now represents about 10% of total export volume. USDA FAS expects total orange juice exports (including both single strength and frozen concentrated orange juice) of 20,000 MT in 2025–26.
The United States continued to be Costa Rica’s leading destination for orange juice exports in 2025. Total orange juice exports to the United States through September 2025 were 7,576 MT.
Costa Rica imported 58,370 MT of oranges in 2024, up from 51,449 MT the prior year. More than 90% of the imports in both years were from Nicaragua.
See the full USDA FAS report on Costa Rican citrus here.
Source: USDA FAS
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