Bolivia's Local Organic Market and How It Might Be Affected by the New National Organic Legislation 3525/06
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Kassel Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences Department of Development Economics, Migration and Agricultural Policy Master's Thesis Bolivia's local organic market and how it might be affected by the new national organic legislation 3525/06 handed in by Arnd Zschocke 01.09.2008 1. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. B. Knerr 2. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. C. Richter Acknowledgements This document is the thesis to obtain my MSc. degree in International Organic Agriculture at the University of Kassel / Germany. Because I hope this text will be useful to other people than only me to achieve my degree I optimized it for the electronic use as a pdf-file. In the electronic version the reader has the possibility to follow internal and external links directly. I encourage people to share and copy this document if it seems useful to them. If there are any questions concerning contact data or raw data from the surveys please contact me at arzschocke (at) web . de My thanks go to my future wife Alison and to my family and nearest friends for loving and sup porting me during the time of studies and preparation. My thanks also go to Prof. Knerr for helping me to conceptualize and structure the work. Furthermore I want to thank the Fundación Agrecol Andes for the opportunity to visit Bolivia and do an internship there and all the participants of the ECO-Feria project for their efforts to establish an ecological market in Cochabamba. Special thanks also go to all the helpful people in Bolivia who took their time to answer my ques tions and fill out my questionnaires, in particular to Daniel Vildozo, Rosario Melgarejo, Grover Bustillos, Nelson Ramos, Armando Sanchez, Mario Choque, Marga van't Hoff, Hugo Maldonado, Mariano Quisbert and many others. I also thank all the developers of Open Office for their great work, which made it a lot easier for me to write this down. I hope the process of change that is taking place in Bolivia will contribute to improve the living conditions of the many Bolivians who have lived through centuries of exploitation and repression. I have faith that the Bolivian people will not need violence to resolve their internal conflicts and will take the right path of national self determination and independence which will also lead to food sovereignty. i Table of Contents List of tables........................................................................................................................................iii List of figures......................................................................................................................................iii List of abbreviations.............................................................................................................................v Abstract...............................................................................................................................................vi 1 Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Relevance of the topic...............................................................................................................2 1.2 Research question.....................................................................................................................2 1.3 Organization of the thesis.........................................................................................................3 2 State of research...............................................................................................................................4 2.1 Purpose of laws and certification for organic products............................................................4 2.2 Evolution of organic agriculture, certification and legislation in Germany / Europe...............6 2.3 Experiences in other Latin American countries........................................................................9 2.3.1 Chile..................................................................................................................................9 2.3.2 Argentina.........................................................................................................................11 2.3.3 Paraguay..........................................................................................................................12 2.3.4 Brazil...............................................................................................................................13 2.3.5 Peru.................................................................................................................................14 2.3.6 Ecuador...........................................................................................................................15 2.3.7 Costa Rica.......................................................................................................................16 2.3.8 Mexico............................................................................................................................17 3 Methodology and material..............................................................................................................19 3.1 Analysis of law 3525/06.........................................................................................................19 3.2 Analysis of the market............................................................................................................20 4 Bolivia............................................................................................................................................24 4.1 Basic country facts..................................................................................................................24 4.2 Socio-economic framework....................................................................................................25 4.3 The agricultural sector............................................................................................................26 4.4 Government control over the local market.............................................................................27 4.5 The production and export of certified organic products........................................................28 5 Law 3525/06...................................................................................................................................31 5.1 Development of ecological legislation in Bolivia...................................................................32 5.2 Contents of law 3525/06.........................................................................................................34 5.3 Implications for the local market (alternative certification)...................................................39 5.4 Implementation.......................................................................................................................40 5.5 Experts opinions (surveys and interviews).............................................................................40 6 The local market for organic products............................................................................................42 6.1 The stakeholders.....................................................................................................................42 6.1.1 Producers and Processors................................................................................................42 6.1.2 Retailers..........................................................................................................................44 6.1.3 Consumers.......................................................................................................................45 6.1.4 Certifiers..........................................................................................................................46 ii 6.1.5 General public.................................................................................................................47 6.2 Results of the surveys.............................................................................................................48 6.2.1 Producers.........................................................................................................................48 6.2.2 Retailers..........................................................................................................................51 6.2.3 Consumers.......................................................................................................................53 6.2.4 Experts............................................................................................................................57 6.3 Results of studies previously conducted in Bolivia................................................................61 6.3.1 2006 AOPEB / ACSHA study in La Paz (FAO project TCP/RLA/3006)..................................................................................................61 6.3.2 2004 Agrecol Andes study in Cochabamba (ECO Feria project)...................................62 6.3.3 2002 FAO study ASOPEC Santa Cruz............................................................................63 6.3.4 1997 AOPEB study in La Paz.........................................................................................65 7 Discussion and interpretation of the results....................................................................................66 7.1 Producers................................................................................................................................66