The organic sector in Peru

Peru, unlike other equatorial countries, does not have an exclusively tropical climate. The influence of the Andes and the Humboldt Current cause great diversity within the country. Peru therefore has high biodiversity, and the Peruvian government has established several protected areas for its preservation. This gives Peru a great opportunity for organic farming. Many small producers have never used chemicals or pesticides, so their products fulfil one of the basic requirements of the organic products market.

Due to its ancestral agrarian tradition - from selecting to managing diverse vegetable species and animals - it was possible to domesticate and develop a wide diversity of products in Peru. Many of them are indigenous, and it is possible to have a variety of crops all year long. In 2005, almost 274,000 hectares of land were dedicated to organic agriculture. This area increased to 275,000 hectares in 2007, representing about 15 % of all agricultural land. 85 % of this land area was already certified organic, and 15 % was in transition. In 2008, about 35,000 Peruvian farmers were working in accordance with organic guidelines.

Exports of Peruvian products reached 194 million US $ in 2008. (2007:161 million US $). In that same year, the main market for Peruvian exports was Europe (61 %), followed by America (36 %) – mainly the United States and Canada - and Asia (3 %). The most important countries for exports were Germany (30 %), Holland (22 %), Belgium (22 %) and Sweden (11 %). In 2008, Peruvian organic cotton was exported for the first time to Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Greece, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay and Yemen. In 2008, Guatemala received its first exports of maca, noni, tuna, cats claw and yacon, and maca was exported to Singapore for the first time too.
 

Peruvian organic products are becoming well established on the international market. It is necessary, however, to improve certain areas, like the presentation and packaging of the products, in order to commercialize not only raw materials or ingredients but also the final products. Coffee and cocoa are products which have been improved in this way. The first exports of instant coffee and dark chocolate are expected in 2009. Other products, like quinoa and amaranth, are advancing thanks to campaigns promoting nutritious breakfasts and energy bars. Some of the products could be combined in the future – like chocolates with quinoa, bananas covered in chocolate, or bananas in energy bars - to maximise the taste and meet the demands of consumers.

Products like Pisco, snacks, sacha inchi and lucuma are likely to have good opportunities for export. Peru’s main organic export was coffee, which accounted for 59 % of exported organic products. Bananas and cocoa were also important, with a share of 21 % and 10 % respectively. Organic coffee was mainly sent to the United States (27 %) and to Germany (27 %). The principal destination of organic bananas was Holland (41 %). Cocoa from Peru was shipped mostly to Switzerland (53 %).

Further important Peruvian organic products were camu camu, lucuma, mango, Brazil nuts and pecans. Also exported were cereals, grains and stews: sesame, amaranth and quinoa, vegetables, tubers, roots and products like palm hearts, panela, peppers, aromatics, spices and condiments like ginger, aromatic herbs, natural products like maca, purple corn and yacon as well as cotton and alpaca. Peru also introduced new products for export in 2008 - basil, pumpkin, canihua, jojoba, noni, avodaco, trout and tuna. Peru’s international contacts for organics are mainly wholesalers but it is considered necessary for the exporting sector to have direct links with the retail segment, especially gastronomy.
 

Antonio Brack, Peru's Environment Minister, explained at the closing ceremony of a national forum on transgenic foods that  global demand for Peruvian organic foods is worth more than 800 million US $ annually – more than 200,000 tons of products. At the congress, Minister Brack emphasized that Peru was one of the few countries that still cultivated crops according to ancestral traditions, and still in a competitive way. He pointed out that Peru had 10,000 years of experience in biotechnology, with more than 3,000 types of potatoes, purple corn and cotton. Regarding transgenic food, the minister insisted that his approach required the consent of society, and noted that the country could not be entirely free of genetically modified products. If, however, GMOs were to be allowed in Peru, then it would only apply to plants which were not part of the native flora. The minister reiterated that the most important thing was that Peru stayed an organic country, and that its diversity was not endangered by GMO contamination. Native crops like potatoes, corn or cotton were to be protected.
 

Dole Food Company, Inc. has announced that Copdeban – representing Dole in Peru - has launched a foundation: the Dole Foundation of Sullana Valley. Newly inaugurated, it mainly aims to improve the health and educational conditions in local communities and to empower producer associations in the production and packing process. The Dole Foundation of Sullana Valley already includes eleven Peruvian producer associations and represents more than 2,200 small farmers and agricultural workers. The foundation focuses on five programmes: business development, education, health, environment, community and development. The foundation is financed through a one-dollar contribution made for each box of bananas exported. Dole has been operating in the Piura region in Northern Peru since 2001, where it helped to develop the banana export industry by providing technical assistance to small farmers and encouraging local producers to grow organic produce. After only a few weeks, the foundation has already contributed 230,000 US $ towards projects creating 550 new jobs and providing 40 scholarships.
 

The San Martin region in northern Peru used to be best known for drugs and the Shining Path rebels. Its forested hills were perfect for growing coca. Against this background, UN official Jochen Wiese offered peasant farmers the option of abandoning coca for coffee, with the incentive that if they worked together their product could reach the international marketplace. That was 24 years ago. Today around 1,200 local families are part of a successful co-operative called Oro Verde, or Green Gold, which grows organic and Fair Trade coffee and cocoa, although the stability of the region is now threatened by the global economic downturn. Jochen Wiese still works for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in San Martin. Coca cultivation is not illegal in Peru provided that growers sell the crop to a state-run company, Enaco, that sells the leaves for use in tea. However, police say that more than 90% of Peru’s crop goes to the illegal drugs trade.

Mr Wiese is convinced that the only way the co-operative can survive the economic crisis is by improving the quality of its product. According to Ed Canty, a buyer for Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee, the bottom line is the fact that consumers are buying more Fair Trade organic coffees. He says the economic crisis has reduced the cash flow of multinational coffee companies interested in Peru, making it easier for more grassroots organisations like Oro Verde to compete. Flavio Mirella, the UNODC’s regional representative, said this was a seed which he hoped would grow into something much bigger for the rest of the country. 23,000 families now benefited from co-operatives growing coffee, cocoa and palm hearts, but the organisations needed more private investment and credit to help them through the financial crisis.

Eighty four “life zones” with a high diversity of products make it possible for tourists to observe 10,000 years of plant domestication and also the multi-cultural fusion of different populations in Peru. As co-founder of Inkaterra, Mr Koechlin has pioneered a carbon neutral approach to the exploration of Peru. With 34 years dedicated to conservation, research and social responsibility, Inkaterra offers a combination of accommodation and nature and cultural activities. These concepts have had beneficial outcomes which prove that ecological research which leads to conservation and is carried out by local populations can be funded by tourism.

According to Mr. Koechlin, it is a current trend for visitors to be environmentally aware, and Inkaterra gives them an opportunity to become even more sensitive to the issues. Through supporting a variety of external conservation programmes Inkaterra stewards more than 17,000 hectares of virgin forest, which directly sequester 3,315,000 tons of carbon and indirectly fix more than 12,600 tons of CO2 each year. Inkaterra hotels use clean technology and eco-friendly practices. Mr Koechlin is a member of the SERNANP Board. SERNANP is the new Peruvian Government Agency in charge of the National Parks with over 200,000 km² (four times the size of Costa Rica). Its purpose is to create a self-sustainable agency with a strong emphasis on eco-tourism.