New Harvests, Old Problems: Feeding the Global Supermarket
Thrupp, Lori Ann
Growing global trade is bringing North American shoppers a yearround supply of fresh mangos, artichokes, broccoli and roses, flown in from Latin America and the Caribbean. In the...
...198 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993), p. 38...
...See also Jorge Rodriguez in William Waters, ed., Deafios de los Cultivos Notradicionales en Ecuador (Quito: USFQ, 1992...
...They allow products to enter the U.S...
...Prices fluctuate greatly in the NTAE market, not only over the year, but also from week to week, or even from day to day...
...Moreover, small local producers tend to lack access to information, credit and other services...
...From the mid-tolate 1980s, NTAEs grew 222% in Chile, and 348% in Costa Rica...
...2 These companies directly produce the majority of the pineapple, and contract the rest with medium and large national growers...
...Current services for NTAEs are largely dependent on foreign aid, but this support is being cut back...
...The problems are particularly serious for small-scale farmers...
...1 3 Resource-poor farmers usually have considerable difficulties competing in the NTAE market...
...27.Calculation of World Resources Institute, based on analysis of FDA primary data...
...This was followed by the rapid expansion in Mexico of large agribusinesses in strawberries and tomatoes for export to the United States in the late 1970s...
...This labor intensity is beneficial in most rural areas of Latin America, where jobs are needed...
...and William Friedland, "The Global Fresh Fruit and Vegetable System: An Industrial Organization Analysis," in Philip McMichael, ed., The Global Restructuring of Agrofood Systems (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1994...
...When taking into account the "bitter" aspects-the social and environmental costs-one is forced to reassess the supposed "success" of the nontraditional agro-export development strategy...
...Each flower plantation requires a capital investment of at least $80,000 per acre, as well as very costly marketing and sophisticated transport systems...
...International Trade Commission, Report on the Impact of the Caribbean Economic Recovery Act on U.S...
...Moreover, even though some market studies suggest that Northern demand for NTAEs will increase, the market may not expand enough to absorb the growing supply...
...Among the positive effects, these products have proven very profitable for foreign investors, some enterprises in the South, and transnational food corporations...
...NA-CIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 26RURAL REPORT Another negative impact from the continual use of pesticides in all crops is pest resis- Nontrad tance...
...Poorer NTAE farmers and businesses are particularly vulnerable to these price fluctuations and declining terms of trade...
...Perhaps more common than forest removal, the agroecological changes with NTAEs involve conversion to monocultural farming systems and to standardized foreign varieties and uniform genetic stock, as required by Northern markets...
...Likewise, analysts have noted that the increasing investments by aid organizations in export-directed development have come at the expense of attention to domestic food needs...
...Gaining entry in the market is very difficult for poor farmers in many countries like Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Costa Rica, where NTAE programs have given very little attention to such matters...
...17.James Fox et al., "Agribusiness Assessment: The Case of Guatemala," p. 30...
...This is partly because the smaller enterprises tend to have less bargaining power, and have less collateral or capital to buffer against downturns or losses...
...16.Michael Conroy, "Problemas y alternativas economicas a las EANT," in World Resources Institute/INCAP, Memorias del taller "Sostenibilidad de la producci6n agricola notradicional de exportacion por pequerfos productores en Guatemala," in Antigua, Guatemala, September 20-22, 1993...
...The transnational business is strongest in fruits and vegetables...
...With the rapid growth of NTAEs, significant price declines have already occurred in some sectors such as snowpeas as a consequence of oversupply...
...Related to this is the risk of market satura- tion...
...2 Following a similar model, Mexico's fresh vegetable sector was developed by U.S...
...For example, in Costa Rica and Honduras, over two-thirds of the employees in fruit and vegetable NTAE farms and processing plants are temporary workers...
...2 3 he production of NTAEs is also characterized by the heavy use of chemical inputs and pesticides...
...4 (1992), p. 603...
...7.U.S...
...They have occurred more than 10,000 times in the last 10 years at U.S...
...The growth of NTAEs has also spawned the growth of numerous businesses for transport, supplies, packaging, marketing, and intermediary brokers for NTAEs...
...They also tend to face more difficulties in responding to the market windows and changes in demand...
...he growth rate of the nontraditional agro-export industry has been impressive...
...At the same time, they satisfy the appetites of Northern consumers...
...New Harvests, Old Problems 1.Secretaria de Integraci6n Econ6mica Centro Americana (SIECA), VIIl Compendio Estadistico para Centroamerica, 1978, cited in Tom Barry, Roots of Rebellion: Land and Hunger in Central America (Boston: South End Press, 1987), p. 8. This data is based on estimates from the 1970s, because updated censuses have not been undertaken throughout the region...
...Preliminary appraisals suggest that significant areas of forest cover have been cleared for NTAEs in a few areas-such as the Northern region of Costa Rica for citrus plantations, and in the Central Valley in Chile for vegetables and flowers...
...The producer's costs are often very high, and the net profits are usually low...
...transnational companies in the 1960s...
...28.See, for example, Lori Ann Thrupp, "Entrapment and Escape from Fruitless Insecticide Use: Lessons from the Banana Sector in Costa Rica," International Journal of Environmental Studies No...
...31.See, for example, N. Bonis, "The Nontraditional agricultural production strategy in Central America," 1990 Master's thesis, Uni- versity of Texas, Austin...
...By contrast, maintaining diversity of crops within individual farms has proven benefits including spreading risks, reducing vulnerability to fluctuating prices, reducing pests and diseases, and other agroecological advantages for soils and resource nutrients...
...Increasing numbers of people are being exposed and impaired, and more are suffering acute poisonings and chronic damage...
...Meeting strict market demands presents an overarching, sometimes insurmountable, challenge as well...
...Lori Ann Thrupp is director of sustainable agriculture at the World Resources Institute's Center for International Development and Environment...
...NTAEs are vulnerable to the risks and vagaries of the market...
...On the other hand, small-scale resource-poor producers have benefited considerably from NTAEs in certain countries and contexts, especially where they are organized in cooperatives or groups...
...In response to the crisis, most of the region diversified into nontraditional, high-value products...
...Moreover, they are usually dependent on external donors...
...They suffer greater proportional losses compared to more affluent large businesses...
...Bolivia has a history of communal traditions among to credit, the indigenous communities, which can serve as a social basis inform for management and organization of small farmers to successfully market NTAEs...
...15.Kevin Healy, Interamerican Foundation, personal communication, May, 1994...
...In Ecuador, for example, an estimated 69.3% of workers in Ecuador's NTAE production were female in 1991.21 Managers interviewed in an Ecuador study said they preferred women laborers because they were better suited to and dexterous at pruning, harvesting, sorting, selecting, and packaging...
...The land-distribution patterns, however, have remained similar in recent years...
...Declining commodity prices, global recession, declining terms of trade, and trade protectionism cut into the region's economic earnings...
...20.The impacts of NTAEs on women have been analyzed in comprehensive surveys...
...Their movement into this sector preceded the regional diversification of the 1980s and 1990s...
...The main beneficiaries of NTAE growth are large companies, which include both transnational corporations and large national and foreign investors...
...Over time, this uniform conversion can bring serious economic risks and other disadvantages...
...Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unpublished detention data, 1983-1994...
...Producers ultimately receive a very small percentage of the final sale...
...The region's agrarian structure has historically been characterized by an inequitable distribution of resources...
...Therefore, inequity in the distribution of benefits remains a serious predicament in the NTAE sector...
...In Colombia and Bolivia, where narcotics production is prevalent, development agencies are eager to develop NTAEs as high-value alternatives to coca...
...For example, an average flower producer in Ecuador spends an estimated $12,000 per year per acre on chemical inputs, which is over half of the total production costs...
...In Guatemalan NTAEs during the late 1980s, detention rates reached 27.3% of the total shipments...
...Jaffee, Exporting High-Value Food Commodities: Success Stories from Developing Countries, World Bank Discussion Papers, No...
...In Guatemala, the use of child labor in the NTAE sector has become very common among smallholders...
...23.Wayne Williams, personal communication, 1993...
...Certain specialization of skills can sometimes bring workers a daily wage five to ten percent more than other workers' wages...
...In Guatemala, for example, a recent analysis of employment generation in NTAEs, based on estimates from the Bank of Guatemala and two field studies, showed approximately 14,000 jobs in agribusiness processing firms, and about 21,000 full-time jobs in production...
...Industry Consumers, Seventh Report of 1991, U.S...
...180 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993...
...Another important issue to consider is the distribution of economic benefits at different levels in the market chain of NTAEs...
...ort boom The growth of NTAEs since the first half of the 1980s in called a Latin America and the closer look Caribbean has been strongly supported by international finannptoms of cial agencies, particularly the World Bank and the Internation- ibility and al Monetary Fund (IMF), and by uity...
...In many countries, agro-exports occupy the largest portions of agricultural land...
...Of course, women have traditionally been actively involved in subsistence farming, but the agro-export industry gives women increasing wage-based work...
...Pesticide use also puts workers' health at risk...
...Producers also somefarmers had difficulty ng in the ort market y lack access capital and nation...
...26.Douglas Murry and Polly Hoppin, "Recurring Contradictions in Agrarian Development: Pesticide Problems in Caribbean Basin Nontraditional Agriculture," World Development, Vol...
...13.William Waters, "Rosas y Claveles: Reestructuraciones de la agricultura ecuatoriana y el sector de productos notraditionales," presented in Argentina at the Third Latin American Congress of Rural Sociology, 1990...
...173-189...
...entry ports...
...They also handle distribution and transport for a large percentage of the exports...
...This ele- vates risks and requires specialized agricultural technologies, rapid transport systems, refrigerated stor- age, and sophisticated packaging procedures...
...These economic benefits appear to be working towards structural-adjustment aims...
...3 Local goverments have also established a variety of policy reforms and institutional support for NTAEs since the late 1980s...
...Although the NTAE boom has been called a "success" using macroeconomic indicators, a closer look reveals symptoms of unsustainability and inequity...
...22.Lucia Salamea et al., Role Impacto en Mujeres Trabajadoras, p. 24...
...They include foreign entrepreneurs mainly from the United States, large and medium-sized national producers, and shippers who are not directly involved in production...
...and D. Bull, A Growing Problem: Pesticides and the Third World Poor (Oxford, U.K.: Oxfam Books, 1982...
...times face competition with pro- ducers in the North...
...At the national level, the diversity of NTAE products has increased significantly in all countries but farmers in the NTAE sector usually plant entire farms with a single monoculture...
...Coffee, bananas, and sugarcane were the main agricultural exports for most countries...
...They have also caused degrada- unsustain tion of natural resources, exploit- ine ed labor, and exacerbated inequities...
...The result is direct losses for exporters, and especially for producers...
...Over time, countries expanded into cotton, beef, and cacao for export...
...1 7 By 1991, the estimated total full-time jobs in NTAEs reached 12,400 in Costa Rica and 11,890 in Honduras...
...For example, world prices for sorghum, maize and wheat in recent years have ranged from $75 to $175 per metric ton, while many NTAE fresh fruit and vegetable products have international prices of $500 or more per metric ton.' Many producers have enjoyed unprecedented revenues from these new crops, which has translated into increased foreign-exchange earnings and rising GDP...
...These requirements raise questions about the institutional and technical capacities of Latin American and Caribbean countries to sustain NTAE production and marketing...
...4 Policies and programs have also been developed to improve capacities for marketing, transport, and infrastructure for NTAEs...
...In Central America, for example, multinational corporations account for approximately 25% of the total production of NTAEs...
...Pesticide residues also pollute the environment, particularly water sources, soils, and vegetation...
...During the 1960s and 1970s, although most countries adopted an inward-oriented model of import-substitution industrialization (ISI), they continued to depend largely on export agriculture, even into the 1980s and 1990s...
...19.Amalia Alberti, "Impact of Participation in Nontraditional Agricultural Export Production on the Employment, Income, and Quality of Life of Women in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica," unpublished report (Guatemala City: ROCAP/U.S.AID, 1991), p. 32...
...In recent years, the incidence of these insects has reached crisis proportions in some areas...
...3 1 Since many of these products are "trendy" luxury foods susceptible to instabilities, economic recession in the North, as well as changes in consumers' tastes, can reduce the demand and thus curtail market opportunities...
...This means that they lack security and are subject to dismissal unexpectedly, especially during times of market declines...
...2 9 In a recent survey of workers in Ecuador's NTAE sector, 62% of respondents said that they had suffered health disorders from exposure to pesticides while working...
...Between 1962 and 1988, Chile's fruit exports expanded 26-fold, with earnings growing from $19.9 million to $473 million (in constant 1985 dollars...
...While traditional exports have enjoyed dynamic growth has bee and high profitability over time, sUcess these conditions have left a lega- success cy of short-lived export "booms" reveals sy followed by economic "busts...
...Jaffee, Exporting High-Value Food Commodities, p. 1. 11 .Joseph Collins, "Nontraditional Agroexports, Basic Food Crops, and Small Farmers in Central America," unpublished paper (Arlington, Va.: Interamerican Foundation, 1992), p. 7. 12.Joseph Collins, Nontraditional Agroexports...
...36 (1990), pp...
...2.Shawki Barghousi et al., "Trends in Agricultural Diversification," World Bank Technical Paper No...
...In Central America, for example, large farms (over 100 acres), although representing only 7% of the total operations, control about 73% of the total agricultural land...
...COmpeti Bolivia also has substantial involvement of small-scale agro-expi resource-poor farmers in NTAE because thE production...
...Although pesticides can bring short-term benefits in controlling pests, heavy pesticide use has several adverse impacts...
...In Costa Rica, foreign investors dominate the production of flowers, ornamental plants, citrus fruits, and macadamia nuts...
...the U.S...
...shopper spends on average 99 cents per pound on mangoes, of which about 8 cents per pound goes to the producer...
...As pesticides become ineffective, high economic land-use losses ensue...
...The farmers have traditionally produced it without chemical inputs...
...This new taste for quinoa has opened up a niche market and export opportunities for Andean smallholders...
...This contamination can raise costs for producers or lead to social costs, though most are never calculated by producers...
...For example, a U.S...
...2 5 The most serious and frequent residue-detention problems in the region have occurred with products from Guatemala and Mexico...
...In most of the NTAE-growing countries, a high proportion of employees are temporary workers...
...These empresarios account for an estimated 40% of the NTAEs from Central America...
...19 Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, a large proportion of workers in nontraditional agro-export sectors are women, in both production and processing...
...Agency for Internation- al Development (U.S.AID...
...In the countries of origin, production of these fashionable "nontraditional" agro-exports (NTAEs) is booming...
...The expansion of this new sector is repeating deleterious patterns and risks characteristic of past agro-export booms...
...Pesticide resistance is sometimes accom- food se panied by the death of natural pest enemies, leading to outbreaks of secondary pests...
...8.Michael Carter, Bradford Barham, Dina Mesbah, and Denise Stanley, "Agroexports and the Rural Resource Poor in Latin America: Policy Options for Achieving Broadly-Based Growth," draft paper (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, Land Tenure Center, 1993), p. 5. 9.PROEXAG data cited in Marteen Immink et al., Nontraditional Export Crops Among Smallholder Farmers and Production, Incomes, Nutrition, and Quality of Life Effects (Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1993), p. 42...
...2 2 In many cases, an important reason why managers prefer women is that they are paid lower wages than men for equivalent work, work longer hours often without overtime pay, and are rarely promoted...
...25.World Resources Institute analysis of U.S...
...Furthermore, workers are rarely unionized and are discouraged from organizing...
...Besides the transnational corporations, another important category of NTAE enterprises are large and medium-sized businesses...
...6.Luis Llambi, "Latin American Nontraditional Exports," in Philip McMichael, ed., The Global Restructuring of Agrofood Systems, p. 195...
...Given these uncertainties, some that the present fervor surrounding NTAEs will soon fade...
...2 8 In NTAEs, heavy use of pesticides has provoked a major problem of resistance and resurgence of white flies in Colombia and Central America...
...Doses of pesticide applications per unit of land greatly exceed those used in subsistence crops, and are also greater per acre than in many of the traditional export crops...
...In most Latin American countries, however, smallproducer organizations for poor farmers do not exist, or when they do exist, they generally do not have sufficient resources for success in NTAEs...
...Chile and Mexico were pioneers in the NTAE sector...
...In nearly all countries, fiscal policy changes to stimulate NTAE growth have entailed reductions of funding for local food production...
...2 0 This trend of increasing feminization of the rural wagelabor force is a ubiquitous change that has accompanied the globalization of food systems...
...Rather, they are highly capitalized entrepreneurs...
...Of the 14 largest flower growers, only two are Costa Rican...
...For example, in fiscal year 1992, U.S.AID spent nearly $119 million on agribusiness worldwide, the large majority of which was for nontraditional crops...
...For example, Del Monte in Costa Rica and Dole in Honduras market almost all of the pineapple exported from these countries...
...Even if resource-poor farmers do get involved in NTAE production, they often get squeezed out of the competition over time...
...29.World Health Organization, Public Health Impact of Pesticides Used in Agriculture (Geneva: WHO, 1990...
...It is unlikely that they will ever (nor are they intended to) approach the values of coffee, cotton, beef, and bananas...
...In that country, 90% of snow peas are grown by relatively poor farmers on very small farms-typically less than two acres.' 4 The competitiveness of small farmers in these crops is 24NA/CIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 24RURAL REPORT largely due to relatively low labor requirements, low land rent, the use of family labor, and Small the fact that these producers are more likely to be organized into have always associations...
...On the "bitter" side, NTAEs have considerable economic, social and environmental costs, repeating patterns of previous agro-export sectors...
...NTAE farmers also suffer from a lack of diversification...
...Additional supply-side inducements for investment in NTAEs are the conventional conditions of "comparative advantage" in tropical countries, including relatively low labor and land-rent costs compared to those in Northern countries, and favorable climatic conditions and tropical soils.6 International and regional trade agreements, particularly the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), established in 1983, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) of 1976, and the Andean Trade Preference Act VOL XXVIII, NO 3 Nov/DEc 1994 23RURAL REPORT (ATPA), passed in 1991, provide influential export incentives...
...and discussions with smallholders in workshops as part of author's field studies, 1993...
...The nontraditional export sector is also subject to significant economic uncertainties...
...In nearly all countries, they lack access to the credit, capital, and information required for success in the business...
...therefore organic production comes "naturally...
...7 The provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) also encourage expansion of agricultural exports, mainly by reducing trade barriers that affect vegetable and fruit markets...
...Many Bolivian smallholders participate in the production and marketing of organic quinoa, a traditional high-protein grain crop that has been grown by the indigenous peoples for centuries.' 5 In recent years, this grain has been rediscovered and increasingly demanded by natural-food consumers in North America and Europe...
...ITC publication 2553, Washington, D.C., September, 1992...
...Farmers then become trapped into increasing reduce food pesticide inputs in an attempt locally and ( to regain control...
...The net revenues and returns per acre of NTAEs are, however, remarkably high, especially compared to traditional staple foods...
...1 8 Many of these jobs in NTAEs enable workers to acquire new skills, especially in processing...
...by contrast, small farms (under five acres), although representing 78% of the total number of farms, occupy only 11% of the total land.' In some areas of Latin America, this dualism is being broken down, yet the polarity still prevails in the region...
...Women workers are particularly vulnerable to problems from pesticide exposure...
...2 6 Between 1990 and 1994, Guatemala's exports were detained 3,081 times because of residue violations, resulting in total losses of about $17.7 million...
...The purpose of NTAE promotion policies and programs, from the perspectives of development agencies and governments, is to generate foreign exchange for repaying the debt, diversify the economy to reduce dependence on low-priced traditional exports, increase agribusiness and export earnings, generate employment, and in general, revitalize economic growth...
...Yet, contrary to what might be expected, these producers are not typical "smallscale" resource-poor farmers...
...Workers in the NTAE sector tend to have unpredictable hours and very long working days during peak periods...
...For small farmers, this generally means converting from mixed farms with a diversity of subsistence crops into farms planted with a single export commodity...
...analysts predict Most of the products in the NTAE sector are highly perishable and have short shelf-lives...
...The NTAE strategy is a key part of trade liberalization and structural-adjustment policies...
...5.S...
...Everyone is vying for dominance in relatively narrow niche markets...
...This volatility is associated with seasonal changes, varying consumer preferences, regulations, and competition from other countries and national rivals...
...5 International information and communication systems also facilitate efficient product turnover and help minimize losses mainly for large producers who have access to such networks...
...During the early 1980s, the region suffered a serious eco- nomic crisis...
...These include advertising and publicity campaigns, trade fairs, quality control, provision of price information, setting up joint ventures or trading companies, and helping to establish cold-storage facilities and port warehouses...
...Panama: PREALC, 1992), p. 142...
...3 0 The growth of NTAEs has inevitably involved changes in the use of natural resources, particularly land, vegetation, and water...
...8 In Paraguay, the value of NTAEs nearly tripled during the 1980s, and in Guatemala, the value of NTAEs more than doubled between 1986 and 1990.9 Of course, NTAEs still represent a relatively small proportion of exports compared to the traditional exports from Latin America...
...14.James Fox et al., "Agribusiness Assessment: The Case of Guatemala," draft paper (Washington, D.C.: U.S.AID, 1994), p. 30...
...Through genetic selection, pests evolve to tolerate agro-expor the effects of pesticides over and the as time...
...10.S...
...The profit margins for small poor farmers are particularly low...
...Most of the victims are agricultural workers-the poorest of those involved in NTAE production...
...The NTAE business is highly competitive, not only among national producers within a country, but also among different countries of the region and in Africa and Asia...
...Dependency on a small set of traditional exports made the Latin American and Caribbean economies vulnerable and unstable...
...These include export facilitation procedures, new tax policies intended to stimulate NTAE growth, and with the assistance of international financial agencies, increased credit for NTAEs...
...Guatemala provides a unique illustration of substantial involvement of such farmers in NTAEs...
...The resulting "pesticide treadmill" has affected many traditional agro-export crops in Latin America, leading to major crop losses...
...24.Ecuadorian flower producer, anonymous, June, 1992, quoted by Brian Riley, Appropriate Technology, Inc...
...20, No...
...The growth of nontraditional exports has had bittersweet outcomes...
...Hoping to overcome economic stagnation and to add diversity to "traditional" agroexports like bananas, coffee and sugarcane, international aid agencies and local governments have been promoting these products in Latin America over the last decade...
...2 4 Secondly, when pesticides are applied excessively or too close to harvest time, the residues accumulate in foods at levels that exceed the tolerance standards established by the governments of importing countries...
...market duty-free or under reduced tariffs...
...First, pesticides are expensive...
...They also tend to be unfamiliar with the crops and the production technology...
...itional t growth a ssociated change availability :an hinder curity...
...Innovations in products, production processes, and distribution systems (mainly through investments of foreign capital), and the increasing globalization of transnational agribusinesses have favored growth in this sector as well...
...The main features of the agro-export economy include dominance of large-scale monocultural plantations, 22NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 22 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASRURAL REPORT high inputs of chemicals, dependency on volatile Northern markets, and the exploitation of both While the n natural resources and low-wage agro-exl labor...
...The labor requirements in different NTAEs vary considerably, but many NTAE crops entail much more labor per acre on average than traditional crops...
...18.Jurgen Weller, "Las exportaciones agricolas notradicionales y sus efectos en el empleo y los ingresos," in Jurgen Weller, ed., Promesa o Espejismo...
...Large plantations of these commodities date back to the 1700s and 1800s...
...and Rae Blumberg, "Gender and Ecuador's New Export Sectors," draft paper (Washington, D.C.: GENESYS Project, Report for U.S.AID, 1992...
...2 (Washington, D.C.: Overseas Development Council, 1994), p. 5. 4.Martin Raine, "Strategy for the Promotion of Nontraditional Agricultural Exports," Internal Discussion Paper, Latin America and Caribbean Region (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1989), p. 15...
...The managers also stressed that women were "more submissive, obedient, capable, and honest" than men in such jobs...
...While this pattern is true for all crops, the price gaps in the NTAE market chain are particularly wide.16 VOL XXVIII, No 3 Nov/DEc 1994 25RURAL REPORT NTAE growth does generate employment throughout the cultivation, packaging, and marketing process...
...Many of the crops are highly technology- and capital-intensive, which usually limits them to wealthy enterprises...
...For example, the average size of Ecuador's flower plantations is under 25 acres...
...Recently, the most remarkable agricultural growth in Latin America has been in such high-value crops as flowers, fresh and processed fruits (particularly mangos, melon, pineapples, passion fruit, and c n a a berries), and vegetables (such as broccoli, snow peas, asparagus, ntraditional mini-squash, and artichokes...
...Adding to this, jobs in the "spin-off' industries were estimated at about 5,000, putting the total at around 40,000 fulltime jobs...
...The scale issue in certain NTAE crops, especially flowers and specialty vegetables, poses a paradox, because the average farm size for many of these crops is generally quite small...
...Foreign investors have a highly prominent role...
...2 7 Mexican export crops were detained 6,223 times in the 1980s, resulting in losses of $49.5 million, and 1,391 times in the 1990s, resulting in losses of $5.9 million...
...30.PROEXANT/University of San Francisco at Quito (USFQ), unpublished results of 1992 survey of NTAE producers...
...This change often displaces the genetic diversity of indigenous varieties, and exacerbates other economic and agroecological risks...
...Much of this agribusiness is foreign-owned, especially in Central America...
...Last, but certainly not least, one of the crucial issues noted by several analysts and numerous farmers is that nontraditional agro-export growth and the associated land-use change reduce food availability locally and therefore can hinder food security, both at local and national levels...
...Violations have resulted in millions of dollars in losses for the exporters and producers...
...Agriculture has formed the foundation for Latin American and Caribbean economies for centuries...
...3.U.S.AID data (unpublished), cited in Margaret Lycette, "Women, Poverty and the Role of U.S.AID," Poverty Focus, Bulletin, No...
...Pesticide-residue violations and detentions have been a major problem for Latin American and Caribbean NTAE exports to the United States...
...Meanwhile, local food production in Latin America stagnates, and hunger and insecurity among the majority of the region's rural people continue to grow...
...See, for example, Lucia Salamea, A. Mauro, M. Alameida and M. Yepez, Role Impacto en Mujeres Trabajadoras en Cultivos Notradicionales para la Exportacion en Ecuador (Quito: CEPLAES, 1993...
...21.PROEXANT 1993 Annual Report, unpublished report (Quito: Programa para Exportaciones Agricolas Notradicionales, 1993...
...Large numbers of people, especially indigenous peoples, have been excluded from the benefits of economic growth and marginalized on unproductive lands...
Vol. 28 • November 1994 • No. 3
