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PARAGUAY: The Sweet Herb of the Guarani

Alejandro Sciscioli* - Tierramérica

ASUNCION, Jul 16 2005 (IPS) - The growing commercial exploitation in Paraguay of ka’a he’ê (“rich herb” in the Guaraní language), traditionally used by indigenous peoples as medicine and sweetener, is emerging as a profitable alternative that allows farmers to generate income year-round.

This herb, grown by the Tupí Guaraní, goes by the scientific name Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, because it was first classified in 1899 by Swiss scientist Moses Bertoni, and first chemically analysed in 1905 by Paraguayan scientist Ovidio Rebaudi.

Stevioside, the active chemical in ka’a he’ê, is 250 to 300 times sweeter than cane sugar, but is also a calorie-free sweetener, which diabetics can use because the body does not metabolise it as glucose.

This year, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is testing for safety, put stevia on a temporary list as a step towards it definitive inclusion in the Codex Alimentarius.

The Codex compiles international agreements on minimum food standards and associated matters, to protect the health of the consumer, ensure quality and facilitate commercial trade of foods.

JECFA has already given the okay for consumption of up to two milligrams daily of ka’a he’ê, “and that is a lot,” Juan Carlos Fischer, president of the Paraguayan Chamber of Stevia, told Tierramérica.

There has been “an explosion” in the international demand for the herb, and orders currently “far exceed production of the raw material,” he said.

Although it is native to Paraguay, stevia is also produced in Asia. Thirty-five years ago Japanese entrepreneurs interested in the plant observed cultivation in Paraguay, then replicated it in their own country, and later in China.

Today, the largest areas cultivated and almost all the processing plants are in the Asia-Pacific region. Depending on the growing season, China plants 15,000 to 25,000 hectares of the crop.

Paraguay began its current programme for stevia in 1997 with 21 hectares. Now there are 800 hectares dedicated to the herb, with hopes to reach 5,000 hectares in 2007.

The only stevia crystallisation plant in the West is in the Brazilian city of Maringa, in the southern state of Paraná, and the entire Paraguayan output is sent there for processing.

The Asian stevia industry moves some 250 million dollars a year. In 2004, Paraguay sold 500,000 dollars worth of the sweetener, although operations in this country are expected to multiply six-fold in the next two years.

By the end of this year, Paraguayan capital will establish a processing factory in the outskirts of Asunción, which will require investments of up to four million dollars, Noelia Riquelme, a journalist expert in agricultural issues, told Tierramérica.

The biggest markets for stevios outside Asia are the United States, Germany, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina, according to Riquelme.

Once it is included in the Codex Alimentarius, doors will open in most of the European Union countries, which have already expressed interest, she said.

As the business gathers force, a side benefit for social development grows in parallel, due to the high profits for the producers and the great number of workers needed to tend to the crop.

Fischer explained that the Chamber suggests planting 50,000 to 60,000 plants in every half-hectare. That size of a plot provides permanent work for four people in controlling weeds and pests, which must be done by hand because agrochemicals and insecticides are not used.

The small farmer can take in up to 1,600 dollars a year for each half-hectare cultivated, “six times more than soybeans and three times more than manioc,” he said.

By 2007, the sector’s leaders calculate there will be around 15,000 peasant farming families working in the stevia production programmes.

The Paraguayan government has also decided to throw its weight behind the ka ‘a he’ê crop, “which allows us to recover in a few months all the lost years,” stressed Fischer, referring to advances in health regulation and origins as a food additive.

These efforts also have the support from Paraguay’s scientific circles. Experts from the National Agronomy Institute developed a new variety of stevia, named ‘ireté’, which has twice the amount of the sweetener compound in the same number of leaves, said Riquelme.

(* Alejandro Sciscioli is an IPS contributor. Originally published Jul. 9 by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)