Increased agricultural exports have indeed contributed to a growthin Peru's

Tag : asparagus
More than half the world's population also still depends for someof its income on agriculture. Rising food commodity prices ought tohave helped them but they haven't. The fact is that much of themoney made in the food chain is captured by transnationalcorporations based in richer nations.
The policy of the international financial institutions over thepast two decades has been to encourage poor countries to open uptheir agricultural markets and pursue export-led growth, with foodexports the engine of development. But the effect time and againhas been to increase inequalities and deepen poverty for those atthe bottom of the chain.
A hearing of the US Congress's Ways and Means committee in 2006unintentionally provided one of the most succinct accounts of theproblem I have come across. The Peruvian asparagus industry was upbefore the house to reassure representatives that any growth inimports to the US from Peru would be in US interests.
For every dollar spent by a US consumer on imported asparagus fromPeru, 70 cents stayed in the US, the industry explained. The moneygoes not to Peruvian farmers but to US supermarkets andwholesalers, and to US shippers, distributors, importers, andstorage owners. Just 30 cents stays in Peru. (The UK too importsmost of its out-of-season asparagus from Peru.)
But Peru doesn't even get the full benefit of that 30 cents,because a large portion of the 30 cents Peru makes comes back tothe US anyway: it is spent by Peruvians on US seed, US materialsfor processing, US fertiliser and US pesticides. US-based vegetablecorporations, Del Monte and General Mills Green Giant, have beenable to enjoy lower land values, cheap labour and low environmentalcosts by moving some of their production to Peru. The handful ofcorporations that dominate the global markets in seed, fertiliser,pesticides, trading, distribution and retailing take care of therest.
Increased agricultural exports have indeed contributed to a growthin Peru's GDP, but the benefit to the poor of its population ishard to see.
This is a story repeated around the world, where free trade has sooften meant a one-way ticket - poorer countries forced to open uptheir markets while western ones continue to subsidise theiragriculture to the benefit of their traders and manufacturers.Until the system is radically restructured, people will still gohungry.
Felicity Lawrence, the Guardian's consumer affairs correspondent,is the author of Eat Your Heart Out: Why the Food Business is Badfor the Planet and Your Health (Penguin)