What did Central America export in the early 20th century other than coffee and bananas?
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There is also Sugar Cane, which grows well in tropical wet areas.
Assuming you don't count Mexico, Central America is primarily tropical jungle (with a bit of wet highland areas, good for growing coffee). Not many people ventured into the jungle interior. Even today with modern tools and methods, efforts to exploit the resources in jungle areas tend to start with burning down the jungle. The prevalence of tropical diseases from Africa made the situation even worse.
The USA's successful effort at building the Panama Canal transformed things a fair bit. For one thing, trans-shipping activities would have boosted the local economy of Panama at least. For another, during the effort the causes of a lot of tropical diseases were discovered and disease-control efforts were perfected, so they were never quite the same bugaboo as they were previously.
The area does have some gold deposits, and there were even at the time you mention some efforts to exploit them. However, economically they don't seem to deserve more than a side mention in any sources I could find.
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