A 30-year journey
marks our essence, our history.
Focused on sustainable production and the well-being of our employees.
1989
Purchase of land for farm development.
1992
Export of the first banana case
2011
First time the company ventured into sales to direct supermarket customers
2012
Urban development project
2017
50% growth with the Purchase of a second farm
2020
60% growth with the Purchase of two other farms
History
Grupo Esfuerzo is a Costa Rican owned company with more than 30 years of experience exporting bananas of excellent quality and following the best ethical and sustainable production practices.
We were first established as Bananera El Esfuerzo in 1988, with the development of a farm in 28 Millas de Matina, in Limón, Costa Rica.
Since then, we have expanded our production area from one farm to four for a total of 960 hectares, and export to North America, Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Each year we sell an average of 1.6 million cases, which is equivalent to 1.5% of the Costa Rican market, thus impacting the local economy and contributing to building the country’s brand worldwide.
History
Grupo Esfuerzo is a Costa Rican owned company with more than 30 years of experience exporting bananas of excellent quality and following the best ethical and sustainable production practices.
We were first established as Bananera El Esfuerzo in 1988, with the development of a farm in 28 Millas de Matina, in Limón, Costa Rica.
Since then, we have expanded our production area from one farm to four for a total of 960 hectares, and export to North America, Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Each year we sell an average of 1.6 million cases, which is equivalent to 1.5% of the Costa Rican market, thus impacting the local economy and contributing to building the country’s brand worldwide.
Purpose and values
We are a company known for our ethics, commitment and reliability, and that is driven by the use of the best practices in social and environmental responsibility.
We strive to become the world’s leading supplier of the best Costa Rican bananas, always under strict sustainability standards and in harmony with the planet, prioritizing the well-being of our workers, their families and communities.
In addition, we aim to expand our offer to include tubers and pineapple. We do not dream of a better planet. We build it by offering local solutions to global needs through food production, and with the support of our partners, employees, suppliers, customers and consumers.
Let’s do business and discover how Costa Rican bananas can change the world!
Purpose and values
We are a company known for our ethics, commitment and reliability, and that is driven by the use of the best practices in social and environmental responsibility.
We strive to become the world’s leading supplier of the best Costa Rican bananas, always under strict sustainability standards and in harmony with the planet, prioritizing the well-being of our workers, their families and communities.
In addition, we aim to expand our offer to include tubers and pineapple. We do not dream of a better planet. We build it by offering local solutions to global needs through food production, and with the support of our partners, employees, suppliers, customers and consumers.
Let’s do business and discover how Costa Rican bananas can change the world!
A Successful Story
We all dream of devoting our lives to doing what we love; to make an impact on the world and leave a legacy. That is why many people decide to start their own business, but few, like Mr. Eduardo Gómez, are able to turn it into a successful, internationally recognized and sustainable business group for more than 30 years, and counting…
Without a doubt, this visionary has dedicated his entire life to bananas. He began as a young boy, in 1948, as a messenger in the accounting office of the Chiquita Brands company where his father worked.
From that humble job, he devoted his free time studying accounting and obtaining his high school diploma through correspondence. While other boys his age were playing soccer or riding bicycles, Eduardo was already preparing for a career in finance, administration and even information technology, positions he performed efficiently, with excellence and effort during his 40 years working at Chiquita.
Can you picture him, young and slim, dreaming of exporting his own brand of bananas to the rest of the world? For this reason, Eduardo Gómez decided, long before starting his business, that he would name his dream company El Esfuerzo “to reflect the effort that it took to have something of his own after being an employee of a banana company for many years”.
That is how in 1988 he bought the first 230 hectares in 28 Millas de Bataán de Matina. Two years later he invested all of his life savings and secured a bank loan that would turn him into a businessman, even mortgaging his own house in the process.
But El Esfuerzo would not become a real company until, as it happens with the best corporate leaders in the world, it faced its first crisis… On April 22, 1991, an earthquake measuring no less than a shocking 7.7 on the seismological moment magnitude scale struck Costa Rica and the border area of Panama.
This seismic event almost completely destroyed everything that had been accomplished by El Esfuerzo and plunged the province of Limón into a gloomy atmosphere of anguish, meanwhile the news reported dozens of deaths and injuries.
How do you overcome an event like this when you are just starting out? How do you not give up? Well, by doing what Mr Eduardo knows best, giving his best effort. His motivation? To build a legacy for his family and make a contribution to the country…
That effort, together with reliability, commitment, quality and social and environmental responsibility are the values that mark his leadership to this day, both as a businessman and as a member of the Board of Directors of Corporación Bananera Nacional (CORBANA).
These are also the values he instilled in his son Jaime and his grandson Roberto, who now share the management of the company.
Together with all of the people who make up El Esfuerzo, they have embraced this philosophy through a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy that began long before the United Nations designed its 2030 agenda, which also seeks to guarantee proper housing, access to education and health, and care for the environment.