Economy
Historically the municipality has been engaged in forestry, logging of tropical hardwoods, extraction of other forest products such as medicinal herbs and other non-timber forest products. From 1948 to 1951 and then from 1968 to 1970, the municipality of El Castillo was a major producer of bananas. The bananas were transported to Puerto Limón in Costa Rica, where they were sold by U.S. companies. Cultivation later declined as a result of black sigatoka (a disease caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis, a fungus of the Ascomycota phylum).
The main economic activity continues to be agriculture, most notably corn and bananas. There are also a number of small businesses that serve the needs of the local and tourist population. These include 25 small markets, 9 bakeries, 2 butcher shops, 7 restaurants, 20 bars (6 just for tourists), 4 hotels, 4 sport shops, 5 carpenters shops, 2 gas stations for boats, and 1 mill.
Read more about this topic: El Castillo (municipality)
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)