How is smuggling saving the corn deficit in Bolivia?

Bolivia prohibits transgenics in its laws, but the corn that the state grain company collects is transgenic according to tests carried out by the producers of the Association of Oilseed and Wheat Producers (Anapo).

In addition, many producers accept that their crops already use contraband seeds imported from Argentina and demand that the government approves their use to guarantee the national food chain since there is a significant deficit to cover the demand of chicken, pork, and cattle producers who depend on the grain to feed their animals.

This problem worsened after last week, producers from the Integrated North of Santa Cruz blocked the highway between the municipalities of San Pedro and Montero (important agribusiness towns), demanding that the government respond to their complaints and demands.

The blockade closed the entrance to the silos of the government company (EMAPA) after producers found trucks transporting transgenic corn to the silos where the government stores grains.

In Bolivia, the government buys corn from all producers to sell it at a subsidized price to ensure it does not rise. Almost all hard yellow corn is produced in Santa Cruz, the department that supplies 76% of the total volume of food produced nationally. In other words, Santa Cruz generates more than 2.5 million tons of food products each year.

“All the samples taken were positive for transgenic corn,” said Jaime Hernández, general manager of ANAPO. Recently, under pressure from the sector, a meeting was called where the general manager of Emapa, parliamentarians, and the leadership of agricultural producers attended.

But during the meeting, they took the opportunity to remove the trucks from the state-owned company to prevent the agreed samples from being taken.

The producers demand the resignation of Franklin Flores, manager of Emapa, since the official promised to analyze the corn, “but when he left the meeting, he escaped and made his trucks full of transgenic corn escape”.

In Bolivia, the use of transgenics is prohibited by the Framework Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well, in Article 24.8, which indicates that “actions must be developed to promote the gradual elimination of crops of genetically modified organisms authorized in the country to be determined in a specific rule”.

There is only one authorized transgenic event in Bolivia: RR soybean. All other transgenic seeds found in the country, especially corn, have been introduced illegally as a product of smuggling.

“We know from agricultural producers that there is a genetically improved corn seed that is not authorized in our country, but that is found in the crops. Between 55 and 70% of the seeds being used are contraband. There is also smuggled corn in the market because Bolivia does not authorize the production, import, or trade of genetically modified seeds or staple foods. This smuggling problem is already vox populi,” explains Gary Rodríguez, an economist and expert in International Trade.

In 2016, a little more than 100,000 tons were imported, and from then on, there have been official entries of hard yellow corn for about 300,000 tons. Last year, 99.9% of the imported volume of hard yellow corn came from Argentina and 0.1% from Brazil, according to data from the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE).

“Practically all corn produced in Argentina is genetically modified. But in addition, videos are circulating showing kilometer-long lines of trucks loaded with corn, and the Santa Cruz Agropecuario journalistic program has shown through verification analysis that 70% of the corn that was going into the silos of EMAPA, the government’s grain storage company, was transgenic.

“It is unknown if it was produced in Santa Cruz or Tarija, but experts indicate that it is not harvesting time. So, it is presumed that, in addition to being transgenic, it is contraband,” explains Rodríguez, general manager of the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade, IBCE.

In response to the complaints, the Minister of Productive Development and Plural Economy, Néstor Huanca, said that EMAPA does not stockpile transgenic corn and is carrying out controls to prove it.

Today, announcements are expected after a meeting of the sector where transgenics will be discussed, and a biotechnology and safety committee will be formed to insist on the government’s use of transgenics.

A request made for more than ten years was repeated this year in May when Anapo demanded the approval of a Supreme Decree, due to a food emergency, that allows the genetic modification of corn to improve agricultural production and imports.

Recall that the Bolivian president, Luis Arce, abrogated Supreme Decrees 4232, 4238, and 4348, issued in 2020 by interim president Jeanine Áñez. The norms allowed the introduction of genetically modified corn, sugarcane, cotton, wheat, and soybean seeds.

For now, agricultural leaders of the Integrated North warn that they will maintain vigilance to prevent trucks from passing to the silos of the government company that collects grains and controls the producers.

Two percent of the corn crops planted in Bolivia are destined for human consumption, and the remaining 98% is hard yellow corn, which is used for animal consumption, being an elementary grain in the food chain. And there is currently a large corn deficit in Bolivia.

National corn production is approximately one million tons, and national demand is one million three hundred thousand tons. In other words, Bolivia has an annual deficit of 300,000 tons.

To this will be added the losses of this 2022 campaign due to climatic factors (about 400,000 tons). That implies that 700,000 tons of corn will be missing this year to cover the national demand, according to data from the Corn and Sorghum Producers Association (PROMASOR).

“Transgenic corn that is not authorized by law (Art. 409 CPE) has been entering the country for some time now. Although it is not permitted for national producers, it is being cultivated. It is estimated that 65% of the corn in Santa Cruz is 2nd generation (IP) BT.

“The request to the government to approve the use of transgenics is irreversible; the approval through a short law will guarantee the feeding of Bolivians and a better production to export,” says Vicente Gutiérrez, director of Promasor.

However, “this is a sensitive issue for the public opinion due to the opposition of “bad green activists” who generate disinformation with their fear techniques. The government is in a difficult situation because, on the one hand, there is the request of small farmers seeking the use of biotechnology, not only for corn but also for soybean and drought tolerant wheat,” adds Gary Rodriguez.

It refers to the demands of NGOs such as Probioma and other civil society institutions and indigenous representations such as the Guaraní people, who call for the prohibition of transgenic maize because it could endanger national origin varieties.

“This is a lack of information; it would not be a problem because there is a seed bank from which our national corn varieties can always be obtained for replanting”, explained Vicente Gutiérrez.

With information from Bloomberg Línea