{"id":2227,"date":"2025-11-30T01:13:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T01:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/?page_id=2227"},"modified":"2026-05-29T07:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:43:55","slug":"on-line-exhibit-costa-rica-match-industry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/phillumeny.com\/johnwalker\/on-line-exhibit-costa-rica-match-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa Rica match industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OCHA, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exhibitor : Fern\u00e1n Pacheco<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. But, here we will concentrate on Costa Rica<\/strong><\/a>. San Jos\u00e9 is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. It is situated near the centre of the country and I will also explain that the City of Heredia is situated 10 kilometres to the north.<\/p>\n

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Two modern boxes from Fosforera Centroamericana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I estimate that it may be 30 years since matches were last manufactured in Costa Rica. Currently they are imported from Guatemala (Fosforera Centroamericana, S.A.), from India, Brazil\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Part of a newspaper advertisement published in ‘La Rep\u00fablica’ dated 24th April 1962<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is very little information on the manufacture of matches in Costa Rica, but without a doubt it was dominated by Fosforera Costa Rica.<\/p>\n

I am quite sure that I am the only person that collects matchboxes and their labels in Costa Rica and finding items from my own country has been extremely difficult. Most that I have I bought in Argentina. What I do have very complete are the match tax stamps of Costa Rica, but not one on a box. Older people tell me that they used to collect them when they were young, but everything ended in the trash.<\/p>\n

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Italian import into Costa Rica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before 1940<\/h2>\n

Before 1940, Costa Rica imported matches from Europe, probably, like the rest of Central America, from Sweden. It is easy to find many of these imported old labels for El Salvador and Guatemala markets, but from Costa Rica I have only been able to find one which is from Italy (SAFFA Milano).<\/p>\n

The first match factory in Costa Rica, 1935<\/h2>\n

An early report can be found in the newspaper El Diario de Costa Rica of May 9, 1935, page 7, where it was announced: “MATCH FACTORY WAS OPENED. The factory opened on the 6th<\/sup> of this month by the industrialists Jaime Sweilbelmann and Oscar Campos. We were invited by said gentlemen and we found countless young ladies working. It is a Costa Rican company and it is expected that it will result in manageable results due to the quality of the article.”<\/p>\n

What is incredible is that the article does not mention the name of the factory or the brand, but certainly this preceded any of the ones that we know and very likely the first factory that operated in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n

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Fosforera Costa Rica factory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fosforera Costa Rica, 1940<\/h2>\n

In 1939 when the world war conflict caused a shortage of matches in Costa Rica (which were imported from northern Europe), Don Jos\u00e9 founded a small chip box factory in Heredia, which, thanks to its inventiveness and mechanical skill, shortly afterwards converted into a match factory, after many ingenious chemical experiments. Thus was born in 1940 the ‘Aguila Matches Factory’ which in the following years, in partnership with Mr. Manuel de Mendiola, became ‘Fosforera Costa Rica<\/strong>‘.<\/p>\n

In a forestry study related to the wood for the production of matches it tells us, that match production began in 1941 when Carlos Collado imported the equipment. For unknown reasons he abandoned his machinery and projects. Later, Jos\u00e9 Gamboa, thanks to his knowledge in mechanics, started a small industry in his house, using old vehicle parts. The wood (Mastate, Jaul) he brought from the mountains of Heredia, about 3 kilometres away from his factory and from San Isidro de Coronado, in San Jos\u00e9. The newly created company was called Gamboa y C\u00eda. One year later he began to see his effort bear fruit and in 1942 purchased the equipment imported by Mr. Collado. Production was at this time of 15,000 boxes per day and the consumption of 25,000 per day. A new law for protection of national industry helped to the strengthening of this industry.<\/p>\n

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Don Jos\u00e9 Gamboa Alvarado (1894-1978)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following information was obtained from the Internet regarding the founder of Fosforera Costa Rica:<\/p>\n