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is farming on say 10 hectar considered a small business and are there any tax incentives for imported vehicle,tractors,equipment.
[quote=”jdocop”]If you plan to raise a crop for sale, as in running a business, then you could own such a thing. However, you yourself (unless you are a permanent resident or citizen) could not perform any of the labor. No, there are NO tax incentives for importing any vehicles. As a matter of fact, the duties and transportation costs are so high as to be 1nearly prohibitive.[/quote]
I do wish to become a resident,but it would be very disappointing to know that all my equipment is going to be of no use to me in cr. I would imagine tractors,welders,reliable trucks,ect. would be very expensive
I’m very skeptical about the economic practicality of an expat farming in Costa Rica the way you seem to be considering.
Unless you have a substantial fund of startup capital and can successfully raise a crop with very, very high market value, the startup costs of land, importation of your equipment (which I presume you already own), hiring local labor, plants or seeds, fertilizers and pesticides (I know, I know), your own living costs, and the unproductive time ’til the first crop comes in would all seem to mitigate against the viability of this project.
What crop would you raise that would justify this risk? And do you actually know anything about the cultivation of that crop?
Maybe another Forum member could suggest some high-value crops the cultivation of which would make this venture feasible?
Also, note John’s advice above. You cannot work in this endeavor until you are a [u]permanent[/u] resident. In order to apply for permanent residency, you must first be granted temporary residency (typically as a [i]pensionado[/i] or [i]rentista[/i]) and hold that permanent residency status for three years. Can you qualify for either of those temporary residency statuses?
And do you have a plan to support yourself during the unproductive years?
I truly appreciate the honesty from you folks. I actually am interested in a 60 acre farm that already has 7 arces of teak.I do not know the age of the trees yet nor do I know if an outside company has the rights to the trees as we consider this share croping. this farm claims to have several home sites possibly for resale. I would also like to know the investment cost of bananas per acre. the cost of importing equipment or purchasing in cr is probally going to be overwhelming
[quote=”jdocop”]Can’t help you with costs of bananas, but I can tell you that there is not much value in raising them. We buy 5-6 bananas locally for about twenty cents, American. Meanwhile, you have to be very careful with the idea that you can raise any kind of tree commercially. By Federal law, even trees on your own land cannot be cut down without se11cial permissions.[/quote]1111 thanks for the chat jdocop. I’m going to come down and have a look. maybe its not for me. Is it true that sunset is 6:00 pm every day and what time is sun rise
It’s my understanding that the teak that is grown in Costa Rica is not of furniture or boat deck quality. Most of it ends up being used for ceilings in homes. Laurel is a less expensive alternative to teak, but neither of them is particularly expensive at retail. So I wonder about the return on investment in teak, even if you own it outright.
The money in bananas has to be in the export market since, as John points out, a bunch of bananas on the local market is almost free. So you’d be in competition with the big commercial growers, Chiquita, Del Monte, et al.
And I think those growers are very vertically integrated. That is, they not only own the plantations but also the transportation systems (land and air or sea), and the storage and ripening facilities, and the marketing networks in the destination countries. I think bananas would be a tough market to break into.
There are no tax incentives on bringing in your equipment…just duty to be paid. Welders are always useful, or so my husband tells me….
Most of the seeds/crops here are short day crops and as such, most of the tomato seeds available in the US do not do good here. And really, there is not many seeds of any sort commercially available, either.
To make a decent living from farming here, you really need to be in a good growing area such as Cartago for veggies, which has more rain/cooler temps.
The commercial growing areas for bananas are in the Guapiles or Limon areas, which often floods. So, two very different requirements re needed.
Making money will not be easy, with teak as other have told you. This was a ‘fad’ a few years ago, and now folk are selling the farms. And usually pretty cheap, so you may guess the reason why….
Teak farms by the way, were usually planted in ‘out of the way’ locations, so [i]possibly[/i] there is no power to the land. We have planted some teak, but don’t expect to see much benefit for a few years, and even then, we will probably use it ourselves, but it will be there if it we change our mind.
No matter what you grow here, you as a ‘newbie’ especially if you have no prior experience with these tropical fruits, will be in competition with those selling the same items as those who have been in the business for years, unless, you have something ‘different’ to offer.
We grow lots of varieties of fruits, corn, sugar cane, beans, etc but not commercially.
One crop that [i]I[/i] think would do well and is not as common, is …ah… but that’s 😆 my secret and I am planning on expanding what we already have.
[i]If you have good broker/good access [/i]to inexpensive machinery/vehicles you may consider [i]importing them for resale.[/i]I am wondering why growing teak would be a fad. I understand central american trees are not as valuable as south east asia, never the less valuable.Do people give up on this because of the time involved.Maybe this trees are worth less because of early harvest.A 10 year old tree is not worth half as much as a 20 year old.I have read in asia some trees are not harvested for 50 years(gold).So if had a teak farm in cr and allowed the trees to out live me, would my children inherit the farm if they were not cr citizens. One more thing,I would be glad to send you what ever kind of seeds you want(I mean vegetable seeds) try pollo droppings with the northern maters
i brought all kinds of seeds with me and so far all of them have grown, some better than others, but they did germinate. sweet corn won’t grow here because there is not enough long days in the summer. but i’ve had bumper crops of lettuces, all kinds of herbs, broccoli, cucumbers, etc. not so much luck with tomatoes though
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