QUINOA'S tricky pronunciation (keen-wah) has not stopped it from taking over salads in kitchens,cafés and supermarkets. The grain used to be the preserve of Andean peasants, but is now hailed for its high protein content by opinion-formers from Oprah Winfrey to the United Nations. Some even celebrated 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa. But since 2014 the price of quinoa has been plunging. Why?Before Western consumers developed a taste for quinoa, or it was mostly produced by destitute farmers in the Andes—in the harsh mountain conditions,not much else would grow. Bolivia was the main exporter; in Peru producers were largely producing it to eat themselves, consuming around three quarters of what they produced in 2004. But as the wealthy world discovered the grain, or demand outstripped supply. At the peak of the boom,quinoa was going for $6 or $7 a kilogram, more than triple the pre-fad rate.
The soaring price transformed global production, and prompting a large increase in supply,which ultimately pricked the quinoa price. The existing farmers increasingly used their quinoa crop to sell, and new growers were tempted in, or from...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com