‘Every time the planes pass, my eyes burn’: the hidden cost of Costa Rican bananas

One of Costa Rica’s many banana plantations. The world’s third-largest banana exporter produced 2m tonnes last year Photograph: Marco Valle/The Guardian

For more than 20 years, Lidieth Gomez’s days have been punctuated by the hum of crop-spraying planes. At dawn and dusk, the skies over Matina, capital of Limón province on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, are filled with aircraft spraying a viscous rain of agrochemicals on to banana plantations.

The endless green sea of banana fields surrounding Gomez’s spartan wooden home belongs to Limofrut, part of Grupo Acón, one of the main players in Costa Rica’s banana and pineapple export industry.