What Costa Rica buys, and from whom.
Costa Rica imported USD 19bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 15 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 3 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries Costa Rica imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Costa Rica is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Costa Rica.
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1
United States
Share of Costa Rica's imports30 per centChangeup 18 per cent on 2022USD 5.6bnin 2024 -
2
China
Share of Costa Rica's imports21 per centChangeup 28 per cent on 2022USD 4.0bnin 2024 -
3
Mexico
Share of Costa Rica's imports8 per centChangeup 14 per cent on 2022USD 1.4bnin 2024 -
4
Guatemala
Share of Costa Rica's imports3 per centChangeup 9 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 628min 2024 -
5
Japan
Share of Costa Rica's imports3 per centChangeup 40 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 607min 2024 -
6
Germany
Share of Costa Rica's imports3 per centChangeup 20 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 529min 2024 -
7
Brazil
Share of Costa Rica's imports2 per centChangeup 11 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 389min 2024 -
8
Colombia
Share of Costa Rica's imports2 per centChangeup 11 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 373min 2024 -
9
Spain
Share of Costa Rica's imports2 per centChangedown 1 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 347min 2024 -
10
El Salvador
Share of Costa Rica's imports2 per centChangedown 1 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 283min 2024 -
11
South Korea
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 16 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 269min 2024 -
12
Chile
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 1 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 264min 2024 -
13
India
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangedown 2 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 264min 2024 -
14
Italy
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 10 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 263min 2024 -
15
Panama
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 23 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 236min 2024 -
16
Thailand
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 49 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 217min 2024 -
17
Vietnam
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 34 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 209min 2024 -
18
Argentina
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 22 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 168min 2024 -
19
Switzerland
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangedown 15 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 164min 2024 -
20
Taiwan
Share of Costa Rica's imports1 per centChangeup 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 164min 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Costa Rica with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is the United States's part of everything Costa Rica imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.