For a moment the global quinoa boom enriched Bolivian farmers before collapsing into overproduction, environmental damage, and economic hardship
For thousands of years, wind has carried salt from the Bolivian desert to the Altiplano plateau. The Aymara, indigenous to the region, call this wind the Wayra. At four thousand metres above sea level, it plays a vital role in sustaining life on Bolivia’s barren soil – most notably the nation’s pride: quinoa. These tiny grains have provided the Aymara with essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins for millennia. Without quinoa, survival in these harsh conditions would have been impossible.
The German magazine Datum examines how the sudden worldwide enthusiasm for the “superfood” quinoa made poor Bolivian farmers wealthy – until supply exceeded demand and global market prices collapsed. Quinoa is a pseudocereal rich in trace elements, vitamins, and proteins, containing all nine essential amino acids required by humans. Long before it became a trend in Western health food stores, it was a cornerstone of life on the Altiplano.
“Quinoa gives, but it also takes a lot from you,” says Silvestre Panama, a farmer from the town of Salinas de Garcí Mendoza, which calls itself the “Quinoa Capital”. He explains the laborious production process: after harvesting, the plants are laid out in bundles to dry in the sun, stacked into chest-high pyramids. Once dry, the seeds are threshed from the stalks and sifted to remove dust, stones, and weed seeds. To make quinoa edible, it must then be thoroughly washed to remove saponins – the word is derived from the Latin word for soap – bitter substances that protect the plant from fungal infections during growth. The work is physically demanding, but it is a tradition that has endured for over 7,000 years.
During the colonial era, Spanish rulers forbade indigenous peoples from cultivating quinoa in an attempt to weaken them. The conquistadors saw no commercial value in what they dismissively called “Indian food” and chose not to introduce it to Europe. As a result, quinoa remained largely unknown outside the Andes for more than 400 years. This changed in the 1990s, when NASA scientists identified quinoa as an ideal crop for space missions due to its nutritional value.
Between 2000 and 2008, a global hype around quinoa emerged. The price of a ton of unhulled quinoa rose by 600 percent. The boom was further fuelled by Evo Morales, an Aymara native born into a family of quinoa farmers. Morales served as president of Bolivia for nearly 14 years and remains a polarizing figure. He described quinoa as a “gift of the Andes to the world” and invested in road construction across the remote Altiplano to improve transport logistics as prices skyrocketed. In 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations appointed Morales as a Special Ambassador, and in 2013 it declared the “International Year of Quinoa.”
By 2013, Bolivia was producing more than 63,000 tonnes of quinoa – roughly twice as much as in 2010. For small farmers, selling prices increased more than tenfold. Quinoa became “worth its weight in gold.” Many farmers sold their entire harvest and switched to cheaper foods such as potatoes, rice, or pasta for their own consumption. Others sold their llamas or went into debt to buy land, purchase tractors, or hire workers, convinced that the boom would last.
Within a few years, Bolivia doubled its quinoa cultivation area. Quinoa was now grown on more than 120,000 square kilometres – almost as large as Austria and Switzerland combined. Suddenly, families that had long lived in poverty could afford cars and send their children to school. Yet the boom had serious consequences. Many farmers abandoned organic practices in favour of conventional monocultures using pesticides to increase yields. Land that had traditionally been cultivated only every second year was now used continuously. The soil became depleted, and artificial fertilisers were increasingly required to maintain productivity.
At the same time, neighbouring Peru expanded its production. In 2014, it overtook Bolivia as the world’s leading quinoa exporter. By 2022, Peru had doubled its quinoa sales and secured a dominant position on the global market. Together with Ecuador, the three Andean nations now supply more than 90 percent of global demand. A UN appeal also encouraged farmers in other regions, including the USA, Canada, China, India, Australia, and Kenya, to grow quinoa. Today, it is cultivated in around 90 countries worldwide.
As production expanded rapidly, global prices collapsed and have remained stagnant ever since. Supply had clearly outpaced demand. In Bolivia, many farmers were left not only with unsold quinoa but also with significant debt. Their soils were eroded and exhausted. The dream of a golden crop had burst.
Environmental pressures have only worsened the situation. Besides increasing pest infestations, Silvestre Panama describes increasingly unpredictable weather: too much rain or too little, and freezing nights that are now even too harsh for quinoa. On especially cold nights, he lights small fires around his fields so that the smoke and warmth prevent the soil from freezing. Climate change is taking a visible toll on the Altiplano. “It’s not like it used to be,” he says. “We can’t rely on the weather anymore.” In 2023, Bolivia was hit by alternating droughts and torrential rains.
“Quinoa alone isn’t enough to survive anymore,” Panama sighs.
This article was originally written in German by Martin Zinggi, published as ‘Die Quinoa-Blase’ in Datum on 2 December 2025.
It is available here.
Datum is an Austrian magazine focused on reporting and opinion analysis related to European politics and culture. It is published and edited in Vienna.
