Countries in the Central American region are the favored recipients of direct foreign investment by Costa Rican firms.

According to figures from the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), over the last 10 years the flow of investments abroad reached US$1.96 billion, and 56 percent of these investments were in Central America.

Panama is the top destination, with US$541.1 million over the last decade, followed by Guatemala (US$339.2 million), El Salvador (US$213.2 million), and then, both with low amounts, Nicaragua (US$3.3 million) and Honduras (US$1.4 million).

In 2015 alone, Panama captured about 70 percent of Costa Rica’s total foreign investment of US$179.6 million that year.

Such investments are unstable, and are made in response to timely opportunities linked to strategic business expansions or buy outs, so data reflects these dips and spikes over time.

In 2012, Costa Rica registered its highest level of investments abroad when the Florida Ice & Farm Company (Fifco) announced the purchase of North American Breweries (NAB) in the United States. This one transaction accounted for 91 percent of the total foreign direct investment that year.

NAB is considered the largest independent brewing company in the United States and has 1,073 employees, said the BCCR report.

A similar spike occurred in 2013 with the Cooperativa de Productores de Leche Dos Pinos acquired the Nevada milk and fruit juice plant in Chiriquí, a Panamanian province bordering southern Costa Rica.

Other years have had more modest levels of foreign direct investment.