In November some 500 Bolivian quinoa producers from Oruro and Potosí – Bolivia’s two main quinoa growing regions – held demos outside the presidential palace demanding that the government led by President Evo Morales stem an influx of cheap non-organic Peruvian quinoa into the country. This has become a major concern for local quinoa producers in Bolivia as not only is it driving down prices, but it also risks undermining the reputation of Bolivian organic quinoa.
Led by organisations including the Oruro-based Asociación de Productores de Quinua Salinas, the protesters marched on the capital on 17 November, coinciding with a two-day national congress of quinoa producers starting on the same day. The producers’ big complaint is that an influx of quinoa from Peru is affecting local prices. Peruvian quinoa is cheaper because Peruvian farmers produce more, thanks largely to the use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers, say Bolivian growers. For example, a report published on 18 November by the Bolivian daily La Razón cited a quinoa producer from Oruro who complained that prices at a local market had dropped from B$1,800 (US$260) per quintal (100kg bag) to B$1,200 (US$174), although the report did not specify over what time frame this had happened. In the same article, Bolivia’s deputy minister for rural development & land, Víctor Hugo Vásquez, said that previously (in 2013), prices had been as high as B$2,400 (US$349) per quintal.
Amid evidence of growing tensions (see sidebar), competition remains fierce between Bolivia and Peru, which was the world’s leading quinoa producer from 1997 to 2011 before being overtaken by Bolivia. According to a 23 October report by Bolivia's state mouthpiece, Cambio, the volume of quinoa produced in Bolivia in 2013 “exceeded 61,000 tonnes[t]”, up 79% in volume terms since 2009, of which 57% was exported. A report by Peru’s national statistics institute (INEI) put Peru’s quinoa production at 51,000t in 2013, with exports of 18,300t. However, according to a La Razón report re-published on the World Food Organisation (FAO) website on 8 October last, in the first seven months of this year Bolivia exported 18,130t of quinoa, while Peru exported 19,840t.
- Border violence
Indicative of the tensions caused by the influx of cheap Peruvian quinoa onto the Bolivian market, on 7 November Bolivian authorities seized two Peruvian trucks carrying 23 tonnes (t) of quinoa at a military border checkpoint on the border town of Guaqui and set light to the contents in front of local media.
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