248 CultureShock! Bolivia
mass market, production would have to expand beyond
current capacity.
So that the country does not lapse into the direct export
neo-colonial economy, local economists and international
non-government organisations are encouraging value
added products and goods. The number of derivatives from
Brazil nuts or quinoa have no boundary. The knowhow
of foreigners is also employed in order to help Bolivian
producers become adjusted to the requirements of
international markets.
With illegal timber operations in remote forests, the
hardwood industry needed a more sustainable model. The
Cochabamba company Industria Madera Sali has been able
to diversify wood products while using a strict environmental
management system. By spinning off wood products into
a more complex product array, this company is reducing
pressure on old growth forests. Madera Sali currently supplies
the immense US company, Home Depot Stores.
Quinoa is another example of diversification and
production of added value. A company like Andean Valley,
also in Cochabamba, has created processed foods from
quinoa, obtaining organic certification for some of its
products. Since quinoa is grown by smaller farmers in some
of the poorest areas of Bolivia, expansion of this industry
and the added value that comes with it can bolster these
poorer regions.
A few success stories cannot blind us to the nagging
obstacles against the Bolivian economy. Being a landlocked
country makes exporting more expensive. Low internal
consumption places too much pressure on export, at a time in
the globalised economy when many exports gain their original
strength from a strong local customer base. Transportation
remains a literal obstacle, with a contorted topography of
immense mountains, tight valleys, narrow gorges and vast
fl ood plains limiting the potential for ground-based transport.
Less than 3 per cent of Bolivian land is technically arable,
though small farmers plant on impossible inclines in areas
we’d consider unarable, and rainforest industry such as Brazil
nuts do not need to be farmed before harvesting.