Interview with Green Chamber Member: Andean Naturals

I spoke with General Manager Sergio Nez de Arco of Andean Naturals about how to navigate the unexpected when trying to be a sustainable food business and creating business ecosystems to take on multiple issues at once

LL: Can you tell Green Chamber how Andean Naturals was created and why you aimed to become a sustainable business?

SN: I am from Bolivia and studied here in the United States. I always had the goal of going back to Bolivia and doing something to help the development of the country. My passion has been to alleviate poverty while using sustainable resources. I used to work in venture capital and the issue of the market has always been there. It is tough to produce something and then look for a market for it. I moved to the U.S. to start a quinoa company and used my knowledge of the quality, volume and other specifications of the product. By being here, we could capture the demand for quinoa. Now Andean Naturals works with about 2,500 family farmers in Bolivia. Whats really cool about quinoa is that there is no large scale agriculture. Each farmer has about three to four hectares. Most are Indigenous families who plant quinoa in high altitudes that sometimes exceed more than two miles above the tree line. Here there is very little rainfall and no irrigation. It is currently the only crop these families grow one crop per year. We buy it, clean it, bring it to the U.S. and offer it to different companies such as Seeds of Change, Eden Foods, and large food manufacturers such as Kelloggs. Our product makes it's way to the shelves at Trader Joes, Costco and the bulk bins at Whole Foods. We are the largest importer of quinoa to the U.S.

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LL: What is sustainable about your business and what made you decide to become sustainable?

SN: Quinoa is a seed from 4000 years ago grown in the Andes. It has been a main staple for Andean civilization for 4000 years and we wanted to keep it that way. To be sustainable, we are taking from that same system, the same seeds that local farmers have been using for thousands of years. We are using this idea of adoptive technology. For instance, the farmers have llamas that pasture in the fields. They want to keep expanding their farms, but this is a challenge because we want them to keep growing forever and for the land to stay viable. The first element was that we would buy only organic quinoa no genetically modified seeds, no pesticides that are synthesized, no new elements coming into the mix. We adopted organic from the very beginning. The second element was that we wanted to pay a fair price for quinoa. So inside that was realizing we need to become fair trade certified. Last year when the U.S. adopted fair trade guidelines for quinoa, we we're the first along with Alter Eco to adopt those principles. This contributed to our quest for sustainability, but reality is very different and we've fallen short.

LL: Can you describe how you've fallen short and what kinds of challenges have arisen in your quest for sustainability?

SN: Weve grown so dramatically. Increased demand for quinoa has meant increased pay for farmers. Thus, the farmers have more incentive to grow more and to grow faster. The grain surface area has increased for quinoa and farmers are starting to grow it in places where quinoa has never grown. They are using more tractors and yields per hectare are decreasing. There are not enough llamas to go around fertilizing the fields and there is not enough land rotation. This is causing an imbalance to happen on the field level, and we are seeing plants be much more susceptible to mold and attack. We are also seeing more erosion of the soil. Farmers used to plant more on the hillsides since hills are less likely to get frost. But due to global warming, they can now grow lower down and therefore can now use tractors to plow. So much more land is overturned and the high winds cause more erosion of the top soil layer. This is happening in a way contrary to what we ideally had conceived in the beginning. We wanted cultivation based on the system that had been used for centuries and have ever-sustaining production. But we are finding that because of the great success of quinoa, we are actually causing unforeseen issues.

LL: How are you addressing these issues?

SN: Thankfully, since we are there in Bolivia we can see the solutions. We had to admit that being organic and fair trade doesn't necessarily make us sustainable. What will it take? we asked ourselves. It will take collaborating with the field workers, working with agronomists. These field specialists tell us we need to do things in our farming practices like create wider rows. They also told us that, although we know that the market prefers larger, light-colored seeds, the reality is that we'd have to introduce different types of quinoa. You need smaller seeds on the outside to protect the larger seeds from high winds. The problem is that these heirloom seeds are increasingly lost because smaller seeds are often returned to the farmer and can't be sold. So the farmers think they need to plant larger seeds to make money. We need to reinsert biodiverse fields where there are many more varieties and broader crop rotations.

We also might have to do the unthinkable, like selling llama wool and llama meat byproducts in order to give farmers incentive to have llamas. If there are no llamas, the original ecosystem is broken. Some sort of artificial fertilizer will be needed if there are no llamas. The land will become so poor they will move out to other areas and the area will become a desert. Desertification of land because of quinoa is a serious issue because again, farmers have incentive to plant more now and plan more intensively. I don't think anyone in the U.S. has any idea what's going on in Bolivia, but it's pretty severe.

So initially we had market success, poor Indigenous farmers we're making three times more than they used to. But then the other side of the coin is that this picture didn't exactly mean sustainability. There is always an ecosystem you have to keep in mind, and there is never just one item to tackle. As a company, we've made a commitment to sell sustainable quinoa by 2012. We have to define exactly what guidelines we want to undertake. There has to be llama rotation, certain periods of fallow, non-hybridized seeds, biodiverse fields where large and small seeds are all grow together, prices have to be paid at fair trade, etc. We must create our own guidelines.

LL: What's your advice to other businesses trying to be more sustainable?

SN: Sustainable is a bit of a daunting task for many companies. First of all, you have to define what sustainable means for your industry. For us it means we want them to be planting quinoa in way that it can be grown for thousands of years to come. It may mean something else depending on your line of business. You must figure out your key components. Organic, fair trade they aren't enough. In and of itself, sustainability can seem unreachable. So I suggest that in order to not get discouraged, break it down into bite-sized goals. For example, taking on the llama aspect of the business is totally scary to us because it's a different industry. But we have to move in that direction. You have to work together with other companies. We found there is another company called Indigenous Designs that makes sweaters out of organic cotton. So we thought, what if we provided the llama wool to those women? The answer is never simple, but it's important to realize that you are never alone in this quest. There are always other companies on the same journey to find synergies. You have to create that ecosystem amongst yourselves.

LL: It seems that you can tackle multiple issues at once if you are able to find synergies with other businesses taking on different, but related issues. In your case, not only are you working on sustainable agriculture, but also poverty, labor rights and womens rights.

SN: Thats exactly right. In fact, womens rights are a huge factor in what we do. That is a much deeper issue that we know we are going to have to tackle as well. What is important about sustainability is that there is more than just one single activity that you have to do. Defining your ecosystem can help you find a balance.

LL: Do you see any trends happening in sustainable agriculture?

SN: Sustainability is going to be a strong trend in the coming years, much like organic has been. You are starting to hear more about sustainability than we used to. I've seen that progression with food people wanting to know where their food is coming from, realizing that maybe it's not so good to be pumping our agricultural fields with chemicals not good for me or the environment. The organic market has taken off from the year 2000 on. Three years ago we started seeing fair trade seals in chocolate, bananas and coffee. With fair trade, people are realizing the importance of the choices they make in the supermarket. Are we exploiting people because there are kids who can't go to school since they are working in the field instead? This is a conscious choice and people are becoming aware of that. To me, sustainable means asking, what do we have to do to get the system back into balance? There is going to be a new niche market where products will be branded as sustainable. This means you will see some guidelines for what sustainably harvested food means.

LL: Why did you join the Green Chamber?

SN: We joined the Green Chamber because of our quest to be sustainable. It is the same reason why we decided to become fair trade certified, because we knew the Green Chamber would put us in a network that has a similar mindset and synergy. By joining, we also want to be recognized as a company that is on it's path to sustainability.

LL: Is there anything else about your business that you want Green Chamber members to know?

SN: I am available if someone is interested in discussing their business plan, especially if they need help looking at sourcing products from sustainable companies in Latin America. I have experience working in sustainable forestry with Forest Stewardship Council certified wood doors and furniture lines, shrimp farming, organically harvested acai berries, palm hearts, etc. I have had the opportunity to look at a lot of different products when working in venture capital. So I have knowledge of several products if anyone needs advice.

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Posted in Agro Food Post Date 07/28/2023