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Forecast Bright for 'Clean' Agriculture |
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By María Isabel García *
Global trade in organically produced goods is predicted to be worth 100 billion dollars by 2006.
BOGOTA - World demand for organically produced food and textiles, which consumers in industrialized countries are clamoring for more and more, is expected to create a market worth 100 billion dollars annually by 2006, according to the Bio2001 Meeting, held in the Colombian capital.
More than 100 small and medium entrepreneurs from Latin America and Europe who have staked their bets on organic farming as the ''niche market of the future'' took part in the meeting May 7-9 organized by Bogota's Chamber of Commerce.
Technology transfer, joint investment and distribution channels were the principal agenda items, and the focus of business negotiations at Bio2001.
Organic agriculture offers safe and healthy production of foods and textile fibers without chemical applications of pesticides or other synthetic compounds. This type of farming usually requires crop rotation - alternating every few years the crop planted in a field -, to reinforce the soil structure as well as its fertility.
This approach is has close ties to biotechnology, though to a branch of the science that focuses on simple practices that allow farmers to generate their own bio-inputs, whether as fertilizer or natural pesticides.
''European consumers are more concerned about the social and environmental conditions involved in food production. They no longer simply buy what is offered, without having the chance to verify the product's origins and impacts first,'' said Jean Balie, head of the Americas division at France's Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing, which sponsored the Bio2001 Meeting.
''The new consumer demands 'environmentally correct' production and, in the European case, a distrustful attitude has grown as the result of a series of food crises since the 1980s, including the most recent involving mad cow disease,'' Balie told Tierramérica.
Another factor playing out in the selective consumers' buying decisions is the demand for fair trade, which for organic farming poses an interesting scenario, given the wealth of biodiversity found in many countries of the developing South.
Colombia, which is home to an estimated 10 to 14 percent of the Earth's biodiversity and holds the second highest number of plant varieties in the world, has ''immense'' potential for organic farming, says María Fernando Campo, head of Bogota's Chamber of Commerce.
Campo pointed out that world trade in bio-pharmaceutical products and ''green'' or botanical medications totals 3.5 billion dollars annually and that Colombia could achieve a participation of three or five percent of that market - if and when the projects underway are successful.
''Colombia is - in the Latin American sphere - one of the countries that has most consistently backed organic farming as an alternative and its supply of organically-produced vegetables is very well received in Europe,'' Balie commented.
''This country has worked hard to improve production technologies, harvests, presentation of the products, packaging and preservation methods,'' he added.
According to the French official, Latin America has developed organic farming to a greater extent than Africa, which is the leading supplier of tropical foods to Europe, ''but the region must make changes if it hopes to comply with all the certification norms involved in international trade.''
Antonio Llobel, molecular biologist for the Spanish firm Newbiotecnic, commented that ''there is an enormous space for building alliances'' in the area of organic farming, ''in scientific research as well as industrial projects.''
Newbiotecnic holds an agreement with Chile to provide genetic technology in the development of mold-resistant grape vines and is involved in a global network of groups working with organic avocado production.
''We are experimenting with using antagonist molds as agents of biological control to fight avocado root rot, one of the principal diseases affecting this fruit,'' of which Mexico and South Africa are the world's leading producers, Llobel said.
Newbiotecnic is also studying ways to replace the use of methyl bromide in strawberry production. This chemical compound used in soil fumigation contributes to the destruction of the Earth's ozone layer and, by international agreement, it will be banned in countries of the industrialized North in 2005, and in developing countries in 2015.
''Though our projects are based on products that are of interest to Spain - which produces 10 percent of the world strawberry supply and is the leading producer of avocado in Europe - the knowledge can be extended to other regions,'' Llobel stated.
''We hope to expand the avocado project with European partners to Mexico, Costa Rica and, most likely, Colombia, he said.
The discussions at Bio2001 reflect the new reality of organic food sections in the supermarkets of Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and Frankfurt, where the price of this 'clean' produce is 20 to 30 percent higher than that of conventionally grown products.
* María Isabel García is an IPS correspondent
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