This paper shows the role played by a significant technological innovation in the productivity of Bolivian companies dedicated to quinoa grain processing. It also shows how this technological innovation has favored the sector’s growth and the creation and consolidation of an ambitious development program in which the principle quinoa processing companies, producer associations and technology developers are all participants. Thanks to the results achieved by this program, which is called the “Quinoa Alliance,” the program has gained in strength over the last three years. This has allowed the Alliance to make a development proposal for the sector based on the...

During the period 2001-2004, the Center for the Promotion of Sustainable Technologies (CPTS), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping industries meet challenges related to sustainable development, carried out Cleaner Production (CP) assessments in five main quinoa-processing companies. These CP assessments were the basis for approaching a more ambitious project --the development of new technology for quinoa processing-- which established the foundations for the Quinoa Alliance’s formation.

Until the end of 2004, the CPTS had technically assisted companies from diverse sectors, but it had not designed or constructed any technology. The technical assistance aimed at optimizing processes, so as to reduce...

As previously mentioned, until three years ago, the main bottleneck for the quinoa cluster had been the reduced processing capacity of the companies. At present, the installed capacity allows the processing of nearly all agricultural production of quinoa with great efficiency.

Table 1 shows the increase in quinoa processing capacity in Bolivia before and after the introduction of the new technology. It can be observed that during the period 2005-2008 the installed capacity, in the six companies that upgraded their processing technology, increased by 550%. This contributed to an increase of 374% in quinoa’s global processing capability.

Thanks to the...

The diffusion strategy consisted of a demonstration workshop carried out at AVSA (Andean Valley SA), where the first prototype had been installed. The objective of the workshop was to show the technology in full operation and the benefits implied in terms of: (i) increase in processing capacity, (ii) materials and energy-specific consumption reduction, (iii) recovery of saponin as sub-product, and (v) reduction of pollutant discharges per ton of quinoa processed (specific discharges).

A few weeks after the workshop, four companies placed their formal orders for the purchase of the technology. The only problem was that IMA (Industrias Metálicas Andina, the...

In addition to the technological change, other factors can influence the productivity of quinoa processing companies. Some of those factors or elements are mentioned here.

It is important to analyze the influence which different forms of ownership have on companies’ productivity. Accordingly, two types of companies will be differentiated: (i) those in which quinoa producers have ownership rights, which allow them to receive part of the profits (social companies), and (ii) companies in which the quinoa producers do not have any ownership participation; they are only quinoa suppliers (private companies). It has been noted, for example, that the market and...

The design and application of development policies for any sector require the coordination of different public and private institutions. In the case of the quinoa sector, the role of coordinator was played, at the beginning, by the Competitiveness and Productivity Unit (UPC in Spanish¹⁸), a decentralized institution of the then Ministry for Economic Development, created in November 2001. The UPC focused on strengthening the productive sector through the coordination and consensus of the public, private and academic sectors, suggesting public policies reforms and proposals to achieve productive development¹⁹. The UPC made the first coordinated attempt to formulate public policy for...

The great challenge that the sector is facing now is to achieve a sustainable increase in the agricultural production of quinoa, given that this link constitutes the new bottleneck of the productive chain. The new quinoa-processing technology presently allows, as mentioned earlier, the processing of almost all agricultural production. In order to achieve greater development, the agricultural frontier needs to be expanded in a sustainable manner.

Today, agricultural production is characterized by an intensive use of labor force with little commensurate use of technology. Even if a great extension of communitarian lands for quinoa cultivation were to exist, the areas...

Our analysis reveals that the technological innovation in quinoa grain processing have had a significant impact on the productivity of the Bolivian companies dedicated to this activity, which has resulted in a considerable augmentation of its exports and the sector’s growth. This has come concurrently with a convergence process in productivity, the consequence of the process mode modification (of replacing batch operations with a continuous process) and the introduction of homogeneous production protocols inherent to the new technology.

The excellent results obtained have led to the natural creation of an alliance among the most important companies of the sector: producer...