The Economist on the effects of the quinoa boom

Few stories have dominated the public perception about a food item more persistently than the 2013 article in the Guardian titled: ‘Can Vegans Stomach the Unpalatable Truth about Quinoa.’ The Economist now takes on the claim that increasing demand by western ‘food fadsters’ is driving the population in Peru and Bolivia into poverty and undernourishment. … Read more

The expansion of quinoa production

The article “The Global Expansion of Quinoa: Trends and Limits” published in Frontiers in Crop Science sketches the expansion of quinoa production, with a focus on the distribution of germ plasm. Based on a mini survey among experts, the authors Didier Bazile, Sven-Erik Jacobson and Alexis Verniau present interesting data on testing and breeding of … Read more

Figures for European Consumption of Quinoa revised

After our post of December 2015 on European quinoa consumption, we received an email from Mr Jason Abbott of AbbottAgra specifying the contribution of quinoa produced in Europe to the figures of apparent consumption. Based on this, we revised our preliminary figure for apparent consumption for the Year Ending October 2015 to 20362 tons. Mr … Read more

New CBI factsheet quinoa in Europe published

The CBI factsheet published in December 2015 gives a bird’s eye view of the European quinoa market and opportunities for exporters. Based on trade data until May 2015, the study suggests that import growth is flattening out and consumption and imports are spreading from early adopters to other European countries. The claim that consumption may … Read more

Challapata Market Price Service Discontinued

Recent developments have diminished the relevance of the Challapata market for the export prices of quinoa. At Mercadero we have therefore decided to discontinue the Challapata price service, following the suggestion of our informants. There are two main reasons for this: both quality and price of quinoa traded at Challapata are no longer representative for … Read more

Growth of EU Quinoa Imports Accelerates to 57% in January-May 2015

Growth of EU quinoa imports from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador accelerated to 57% in January-May 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. In January- May 2014 imports grew at ‘only’ 32% compared to a year before. In 2014 as a whole the import volume from these three countries was 14,468 MT, which constituted an … Read more