August 28, 2022, 12:20 PM
August 28, 2022, 12:20 PM
With the aim of promoting scientific advances and strengthening national production, Bolivia will host the VIII World Congress of Quinoa 2023 informed the Minister of Rural Development and Lands, Remmy Gonzales.
The international meeting will be held between March 28 and 31, 2023. The Official Launch of the VIII Quinoa World Congress will be held on September 21, 2022, in the Inter Salar de Uyuni area, in Potosí
Gonzales pointed out that in the congress they are going to generate spaces for the exchange of scientific, technological and innovation knowledge, as well as knowledge and ancestral experiences on the development of the production chain of quinoa and related species in the global context.
The authority announced that it is planned to discuss issues on the quinoa production chain, the importance of the crop at a nutritional, social and cultural level, because it is a grain that can counteract hunger in the world.
Also, he indicated that expects representatives of producing and non-producing countries to attend, which contribute to the development of the production complex of quinoa: farmers, businessmen, researchers and academics.
From the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE), they detailed that the Quinoa exports in 2021 totaled $62 million for 29,000 tons, far from the almost $200 million and 30,000 tons of 2014.
Until April 2022, external sales fell in value by 21% and in volume 15%, compared to the same period in 2021.
Between 2000 and 2021, Bolivian exports of quinoa they had a value of $us 1,237 million for the sale of 408,000 tons.
According to the IBCE, the drop in prices also seems to have discouraged grain cultivation in Bolivia. Between 2020 and 2021, production fell by almost half, going from 70,170 to 38,800 tons.