Panama is a tiny but very strategically placed country. Panama is a narrow land bridge connecting North and South America. The Panama Canal, built by the United States after Panama’s independence from Colombia in 1903, joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1989 U.S. troops overthrew Gen. Manuel Noriega, following his indictment for complicity in drug trafficking. Panama’s first woman president, Mireya Moscoso, was elected in 1999—the same year that her country assumed full control of the Panama Canal.
Coffee in Panama is very well established and gaining worldwide recognition for exquisite coffee. It is primarily high grown and very high quality. In the land of the Panama Canal, bird filled rain forests and world class fishing, lies coffee farms producing world class coffee. In Panama’s highland region, the western province of Chiriqui, is the placid and wonderful town of Boquete. It is known as the “Valley of the Flowers and Eternal Spring.” On the side 0f the Baru Volcano (over 11400 feet) near the border with Costa Rica, are some of the best, if not the best, Estate coffees in the world. The area has the perfect environment for growing world class coffee beans. The unique area receives winds from the north, known as the “barareque,” along with a light drizzle accompanied by a cool breeze. The best and highest ranking coffees in the world come from this region of Panama. The Boquete and Volcano Baru region’s high altitude grown Estate coffees consistently outperform the rest of the world.
Most Panama specialty coffees are grown on medium-sized farms on the Pacific-facing slopes of 11,450-foot Volcan Baru, Panama’s highest point. Wrinkled by coffee-friendly valleys, Baru rises gently but massively at Panama’s western border with Costa Rica. Most of these farms are concentrated in the Boquete Valley on the southeastern side of the volcano. A few are scattered to the west, toward the Costa Rica border, in the growing regions called Volcan and Renacimiento.
Background:
Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela - named the Republic of Gran Colombia. When the latter dissolved in 1830, Panama remained part of Colombia. With US backing, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 and promptly signed a treaty with the US allowing for the construction of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land on either side of the structure (the Panama Canal Zone). The Panama Canal was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the US to Panama by the end of the century. Certain portions of the Zone and increasing responsibility over the Canal were turned over in the subsequent decades. With US help, dictator Manuel NORIEGA was deposed in 1989. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the Canal, and remaining US military bases were transferred to Panama by the end of 1999. In October 2006, Panamanians approved an ambitious plan to expand the Canal. The project, which began in 2007 and could double the Canal’s capacity, is expected to be completed in 2014-15.
Population
3,232,000
Capital
Panama City; 930,000
Area
75,517 square kilometers
(29,157 square miles)
Language
Spanish, English
Religion
Roman Catholic, Protestant
Currency
balboa, US dollar
Life Expectancy
74
GDP per Capita
U.S. $6,200
Literacy Percent
93
