Costa Rican Ports are ranked amongst the worst in the World.

It’s as if the Costa Rican authorities are throwing money down the drain after a report for the International Competitiveness forum was released detailing that Costa Rica has some of the worst ports in the World. The report took into account official figures and opinion polls as well as many other indicators before ranking the country in position 128 out of 134. Long waiting times and poor infrastructure contributed to its downfall. The ports analyzed included Limon, Moin in the Caribbean and Caldera where one boat reportedly waited up to four days before being served.

Costa Rica did rank ahead of one of its neighbors with Nicaragua being placed even lower along with East Timor, Tajikistan (and no doubt Somalia!). However its neighbor to the south, Panama, scored and impressive 15th place largely due to organization of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, the Panama Canal.

The implications of having such a poorly organized port other than customer dissatisfaction include a large loss of earnings. Last year there was a reported 38,000 hours lost due to delays which cost authorities between $30 million to $48 million. In addition, the poor quality of the ports is having a negative effect on exports and the interest of tourists who require the docks to have a larger capacity. Indeed the delays have been a particular problem for fruit growers who need rapid unloading and loading of their goods.

The blame of the situation is being thrown around with Marco Vargas, the Minister of Interagency Coordination accusing the Costa Rica government of a lack of investment. In addition, delays over building new ports as well as local union protests have only served to add fuel to the fire.

Since the report came out the World Bank has responded by lending Costa Rica $72.5 million to modernize the country’s ports especially the port of Limon which is Central America’s second busiest port yet the deprived infrastructure means that it runs inefficiently.

In coming months and years Costa Rican authorities will be looking to resolve some of the issues that have seen it ranked as home to some of the worst ports in the world, something which need to be overcome in order to aid the overall growth of the country.

In the meantime however, if you are looking to Travel to Costa Rica, maybe it’s best to fly!

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Filed under: Business on December 1st, 2008