Quinoa is one of the most complete ancestral foods and has been considered an important ally in reducing hunger and malnutrition in the world, but the more than 70,000 Bolivian producers of the grain have gone from a boom in business to a vertiginous fall seeing the collapse of prices and exports that Bolivia once led.
The cause of these reductions lies in the increase in the world supply of the grain, rich in proteins, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, in countries that did not cultivate it before, but that began to do so due to international recommendations on its nutritional and dietary properties and its adaptation to diverse geographical and environmental conditions.
The food originates from the shores of Lake Titicaca, shared by Bolivia and Peru, where the Aymara farming couple Ismael Cruz and Margarita Zarate cultivate white quinoa in the Bolivian town of Ñacoca and process it for their own consumption as their ancestors used to do. artisan elaborating dishes that support their diet in the midst of economic deficiencies.
“Quinoa is more food for our body, so that it is strong and diseases do not catch us,” says Cruz, while his wife adds that his favorite dishes are p’esque (stew), phisara (prepared with cheese) and the quispiña (cookies) for the benefits of calcium, in addition to the combination of quinoa with different fruits to prepare juices.
The couple barely has four hectares of different crops, but they dream of having more land, motocultores, certified seeds and obtaining government support to access international markets, since at the moment their possible surpluses of quinoa are sold to merchants in neighboring Peru at very low prices. low, equivalent to about 6 or 7 dollars per arroba.
“The best quinoa in the world is produced in the southern highlands of Bolivia”
Those who have made a leap are the farmers of the southern Bolivian altiplano, which includes the region between the large salt flats of Coipasa and Uyuni, where organic or ecological royal quinoa is produced, which is distinguished by its large, colored grains and is processed in the industrial plant of the National Association of Quinoa Producers (Anapqui), which France 24 visited in the municipality of Challapata, in the Oruro region.
“For us it is the best quinoa in the world because it is produced in a highly natural area, which is blessed by salt flats, produced at an altitude greater than 3,600 meters above sea level,” says Eduardo Paye, deputy manager of the quinoa program. A native of Anapqui, an association of peasant families that exports to Europe, the United States, Canada and China.
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However, according to the interviewee, the final buyers consume the food generically and do not recognize the brand of organic royal quinoa that requires additional efforts and costs from Bolivian farmers to offer a product with the least possible mechanization, “with zero pesticides, zero agrochemicals”.
Royal organic quinoa “is highly nutritious and ecologically produced,” but the price is the same as that of other countries’ production and “that hurts us,” adds Paye.
“It is painful to say, but there is a dramatic change”
Years ago, Bolivia gave up first place in quinoa exports to Peru, and although both Andean countries are still the largest exporters of the grain, currently around 120 nations have managed to develop experimental and commercial plantations in various regions of the world, according to data from Anapqui and Fundación Tierra, from Bolivia.
From the golden age that Bolivian quinoa experienced a few years ago, it has now gone into the red, according to data from the private Bolivian Foreign Trade Institute (IBCE), whose manager, Gary Rodríguez, summed up: “It is painful to say, but there is a dramatic change” that supposes a transition “from a dream to a nightmare”.
Last year, exports totaled 61.7 million dollars, which shows a drop of 134 million dollars compared to the 196.6 million reported in 2014, which was the best year after the United Nations declared 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa, regarding a campaign promoted precisely by Bolivia.
The lower income is the result of the fall in the price of grain, which this year has reached 2,072 dollars per metric ton, a sum similar to that of 15 years ago and which represents less than a third of the 6,602 dollars that were paid in 2014.
The drop in prices also seems to have discouraged grain cultivation in Bolivia: between 2020 and 2021, production fell by almost half, going from 70,170 to 38,800 tons, according to IBCE figures.
In the global figures of Bolivian exports, the value of quinoa represents a percentage of less than 1% and in that of non-traditional products -excluding the extractive industry-, 2% and, although it does not seem to affect the national economy, more than 70,000 producers are suffering from the drop in prices.
What is striking is that, according to Gary Rodríguez, Peruvian farmers have increased their production and the value of their exports of sweet quinoa, because they would have lower production costs than Bolivian organic royal quinoa, which lacks special markets.
To help the quinoa farmers, the Minister of Rural Development, Remmy Gonzáles, recently announced that in eight months the US market for value-added quinoa products will be expanded and that a system of certifications and denomination of origin will be created for real quinoa organic in order to obtain a better price for a higher quality product.
We have to work so that we have an additional value for being a country of origin
According to the minister, the world market for quinoa is equal to 13,000 million dollars and Bolivian producers can improve their economy by accessing them if they comply with international standards and certifications that support the quality of real quinoa.
“There may be a hundred countries that are offering quinoa, we are still not going to meet the international demand. Now we have to work on that so that we have an additional value for being a country of origin,” said Gonzáles.
Quino leaders look forward to the help of the Government to make the appellation of origin effective for several communities, an issue that has been under discussion for almost two decades. This “commercial tool” would allow better prices as an incentive so that the new generations do not leave their lands and migrate, something that is already being experienced in Bolivia.
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