Costa Rica provides an excellent example of the neoliberal approach to agricultural policy implemented during the last two decades in Latin America. In the early 1980s, Costa Rica shifted from limited promotion of import substitution industrialisation to export‐led growth and non‐traditional crops. This article presents important findings about the effects of outward‐looking development policies since the 1990s on Costa Rica's patterns of food production and land tenure. While trade liberalisation has diversified agriculture and increased the levels of export production, it has also had negative effects on food security.