Agribusiness Facing Its Limits: the Re-Design of Neoliberalization Strategies in the Exporting Agriculture Sector in Chile
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land Article Agribusiness Facing Its Limits: The Re-Design of Neoliberalization Strategies in the Exporting Agriculture Sector in Chile Alexander Panez 1, Ilka Roose 2,* and Rodrigo Faúndez 3 1 Department of Social Sciences, University of Bio-Bio, Avda. Collao 1202, 4051381 Concepción, Chile; [email protected] 2 Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Germany 3 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Chile, 832000 Domeyko, Chile; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 19 January 2020; Accepted: 24 February 2020; Published: 26 February 2020 Abstract: The core neoliberal strategy of Chilean agrarian politics has lasted now for more than 30 years. Despite minor reforms, its fundamental pillars remain in place. While members of the agribusiness sector consider this strategy to be a role-model for food production leading to explosive economic growth, the last decade exposed its socio-ecological limits, such as declining water availability and increased conflicts over land. Taking critical literature on neoliberalization as a theoretical approach, we used law and literature reviews as well as qualitative interviews with actors from the public and private sectors to reveal the details of the strategies in the exporting agriculture sector in Chile. From the understanding of neoliberalization as a multi-layered process, we analyzed the data, focusing on three dimensions of agribusiness in Chile: (a) regulation, (b) spatial fix, and (c) ideological paradigms. In doing so, we uncovered how far the coping strategies chosen by the state and private sector have re-designed and strengthened the process of agriculture neoliberalization in order to push its own socio-ecological limits. Keywords: agribusiness; Chile; neoliberalization; access to land and territory 1. Introduction In Chile, a neoliberal agricultural strategy has remained in place for more than 30 years. Throughout its trajectory it has undergone different modifications but retained its fundamental pillars. The main actors of Chilean agribusiness often claim to be exemplary role models in food production, which has achieved an explosive growth of non-conventional agricultural exports, thereby positioning Chile within the global food market. However, in the last decade there has been growing evidence of limitations to the expansion of this activity due to the decrease in the water availability for crops and the increase in territorial conflict over the impacts of the current agribusiness model. Studies on the Chilean case focus mainly on the metamorphosis of the agrarian question referring to the inequalities that neoliberalism has caused among farmers [1], the loss of previous forms of peasant existence [2], and the changes in the structure of work in rural areas [3]. However, one aspect that has been researched little is the limitations that the agribusiness model experiences in Chile and the strategies that private and state actors are deploying. The objective of this article is to characterize the main strategies of the implementation and the consolidation of the neoliberalization process in Chilean agriculture. Particularly, we focus on two questions: What are the limitations, difficulties, and/or conflicts that occurred during its Land 2020, 9, 66; doi:10.3390/land9030066 www.mdpi.com/journal/land Land 2020, 9, 66 2 of 26 implementation trajectory? What are the strategies deployed by the supporters of the agribusiness model to face this scenario? Understanding how neoliberalization of agriculture tries to solve the problems generated, inter alia, by its own operation, is a research challenge that social sciences in the Global South have paid little attention to. Therefore, we consider that answering the above-stated questions by analyzing not only the original design of neoliberalization, but also by comprehending its constant re-creation, is important to achieve a more complex understanding of the installation of the agribusiness model in Chile and other countries of the Global South that have gone through similar processes. Additionally, we consider that this approach allows us to highlight the presence and key role of the State in establishing the pro-market model in agriculture. Against this background, we create a theoretical framework that builds a bridge between the contributions from the analysis of neoliberalism inspired by Foucault’s theory of governmentality and the works of Marxist critical geography regarding neoliberalization. Furthermore, this article uses documentary and qualitative interviews analysis to explore the development of the agribusiness model in Chile from three dimensions: (a) regulatory frameworks—de-regulation and re-regulation process through laws, trade agreements, and subsidies; (b) spatial fix—geographical expansions and restructuring guide by capital interest in the agriculture sector; and (c) rationality—discursive strategies that seek to shape social relationships and subjectivities under the principles of neoliberalism related to the agribusiness model. Following upon this, the article will detail how far the state and private sector have gone in contributing to maintaining the neoliberal paradigms of the regulatory framework, going on to discuss the subsidiary role of the state in encouraging the transformation of space for the purposes of agricultural export, and identify the spreading of a binominal narrative aimed at strengthening the rationality of neoliberalism by the private sector. Characteristics of the Agribusiness Model in Chile Inaugurated by the agrarian reform of 1967 to 1973, Chile went through a radical transformation of its agriculture sector that changed the structure of its land, which had been cultivated since the 18th century [4]. By this, the relationship of the tenant farmers with their landlords was dismantled, turning the focus from production towards the importance of the farmers’ access to the land. However, this process of farmers’ organization and land redistribution in Chile changed after the coup d’état in 1973. Although the civil-military dictatorship denied the legacy of the previous governments, the agrarian reform inaugurated by the former government offered economic advantages. Specifically, the process of land restructuring presented an opportunity to push the modernization of agriculture and its greater integration within the dynamics of the international markets (OCDE, 2008). During the rural transformation taking place in the civil-military dictatorship, different phases of agricultural politics surfaced [1,4]. It began with a period of neoliberal orthodoxy spanning 1973 to 1983. During those years an agrarian contra-reform was applied that gave back a third of the expropriated land to the former owners, auctioned or sold another third to entrepreneurs, and assigned the remaining third to farmers who were involved in neither workers’ unions nor in left-wing political parties. This period opened doors for a processes of land commercialization. Moreover, private ownership of water rights was established. From then on, water has been treated as an economic good tradable on the market. Similarly, a process of food price liberalization emerged by lowering the tax hurdles to food importation. Because of the economic crisis in 1982 and 1983, the state then adopted politics of neoliberal pragmatism by rearranging the economy to the advantage of the agriculture sector [1]. Specifically, mechanisms of protection and tax incentives for agricultural exportation were installed as well as the Law 18.450, which was written to create subsidies for the encouragement of private investments in irrigation facilities [5]. Later on, the post-dictatorship governments maintained the core focus of previous agriculture politics. They installed methods to increase technical support for the agricultural sector (mainly Land 2020, 9, 66 3 of 26 through the program of irrigation improvements) and promoted the export of agricultural goods, strengthened by free trade agreements instituted in the 1990s. Those measures aimed at incorporating small-scale farmers into the modernization and internationalization processes by providing technical assistance and access to credits. Moreover, through externalization politics, the role of the private sector was enhanced [6]. One of the fundamental pillars of the economic boom in the agriculture sector was incentives for non-traditional agriculture exports. The production of fresh fruits emerged as a promising activity due to the comparative advantages of Chile in the globalized market, such as climate conditions and the contra-seasonal character compared to the importing countries [1]. The available data on planted surfaces reveal the expansion of fruit production in Chile. While in 1975 the total area planted with fruits was 89.488 ha, in 2016 the total area had increased by 252% to 315.375 ha [7]. However, the current agribusiness model has been criticized in recent literature [7,8], pointing to the socio-ecological impacts on the territories caused by large-scale agricultural production. Currently, one of the most discussed topics in both political and scientific circles is water, due to the decrease in water availability that has become a growing concern on the national level. Water scarcity is considered to be a root issue in both precipitation decrease—especially in north and central Chile—and the intensification of water use [9]. According to the National Water Directive