Abstract

To characterize the population of producers that distribute organic vegetables in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Costa Rica, a semi-structured survey was applied to 30 of them in different outlets from November 2013 to February 2014. They were classified into 3 groups: the first, with over 10 years' experience and dedicated exclusively to this activity, uses family labor, plants about one hectare, and diversifies production; they are unionized and certified and have the lowest schooling, as compared to the other groups. The producers of the second group are characterized by around 7 years in the activity and almost exclusive dedication; make little use of family labor; plant less than half a hectare; are not necessarily unionized and / or certified; have an intermediate school level. The third group corresponds to producers with fewer years of experience in this activity and the lowest dedication to it; they make less use of family labor; have a smaller planting area and littlediversified crop production; may or may not be unionized and / or certified and have a higher education level. It is concluded that production of organic vegetables is a growing market, which requires external support in the form of loans and technical assistance in order to consolidate, and even compensation for environmental services produced; if these conditions are fulfilled, it will be possible to witness in coming years an important growth of the sector.

Keywords   Organic production; farmers; quantitative and qualitative characteristics; Gran Area Metropolitana; Costa Rica