The real price of that bunch of asparagus

The once upmarket vegetable is much cheaper than it used to be. But it comes at a big environmental cost

ASPARAGUS GROWN in Peru and sold here is commonly held up as a symbol of unacceptable food miles, but a report has raised an even more urgent problem: its water footprint. The study, by the development charity Progressio, has found that industrial production of asparagus in Peru’s Ica Valley is using up the area’s water so fast that smaller farmers and local families are finding wells running dry. Water to the main city in the valley is also under threat, it says. It warns that the export of the luxury vegetable, much of it to European supermarkets, is unsustainable in its current form.

The Ica Valley, a desert area in the Andes, is one of the driest places on Earth. The asparagus beds developed in the past decade require constant irrigation, with the result that the local water table has plummeted since 2002, when extraction overtook replenishment. In some places it has fallen by eight metres each year, one of the fastest rates of aquifer depletion in the world.

The market in fresh asparagus barely existed before the end of the 1990s. Peru has become the largest exporter of asparagus, earning more than €350 million a year. About 95 per cent of that asparagus comes from the Ica Valley.

The expansion of the agricultural frontier in the region was made possible thanks to multimillion-euro investments by the World Bank from the late 1990s on. In just 10 years asparagus cultivation has exploded to cover nearly 100sq km of reclaimed desert. The trade has created about 10,000 jobs in a very poor area, contributing significantly to Peru’s growth, but it has already provoked conflict. When a World Bank executive went to investigate complaints about the water shortages in April he was shot at.

“The water tragedy unfolding in this region of Peru should set alarms bells ringing for government, agribusiness and retailers involved in Ica’s asparagus industry,” said report author Nick Hepworth.

Two wells serving up to 18,500 people in the valley have already dried up. Traditional small- and medium-scale farmers have also found their water supplies severely diminished.

Juan Alvarez’s experience is typical. His family has farmed the Ica Valley for four generations. He employs 10 people through the year, with up to 40 jobs in peak season, but he says those livelihoods are under threat. The wells on his farm used to hit water at 55m, and he could pump 60l of water a second from them. Now some have dried out, and where there is still water he has to drill down 108m and can extract only 22l a second even at that depth.

Alvarez told researchers: “Agroexporters came with new government policies and tax exemptions. They bought water rights and started buying wells very far away. They have created jobs, and that’s important, but the reality is they are depleting the water resources, and when the water is gone they will leave. But what future is there for us? We will never leave.”

For smaller farmers the crisis is even more acute. Elisa Gomez and her family own a small farm next to one of the largest asparagus exporters and have to buy water for irrigation from the local canal, but the industrial production has made it hard to survive. “We pay for water for 15 days twice a year. But the soil is not as productive as before and dries out in just three days. Now the land is so dry the water drains away much faster.”

The large-scale exporting companies are not immune from the crisis of overextraction either. They are facing rising costs for their water. They have been deepening existing wells, buying up old ones from neighbouring land and piping water huge distances. Some are also alleged to have got around a ban on new wells by paying off officials.

One of the largest and most modern of Peru’s fresh asparagus producers spoke to Progressio researchers anonymously. It has received loans from the World Bank’s lending arm. Its chief executive said that the water levels in some wells were falling by as much as two metres a year. All its wells are licensed and legal, but, he said, regulation was weak and there was no inspection of what people extracted.

“Peru provides the world with the best example of how to mismanage water. We desperately need to rationalise water use in the Ica. We are spending huge sums just to survive.” He argued that big businesses such as his were at the forefront of science to use water efficiently but that traditional farmers used water carelessly.

The water shortages on Peru’s Pacific coast are expected to worsen as climate change shrinks the glaciers that feed the Ica river system.

Promoting food for export has been a key plank in World Bank policy for developing countries. Its investment arm, International Finance Corporation, says it aims to promote sustainable development through investment in private-sector companies, which it requires to minimise their water use: “We define sustainability as providing economic growth opportunities for the poor and protecting the environment and the rights of vulnerable communities.”

How far the policy helps the poorest in those countries remains a subject of fierce debate among international development experts.

We asked some leading retailers to comment. Marks Spencer said: “We have a range of responsible water use projects under way and have strengthened our farming standards to include greater focus on water efficiency.” Tesco said: “We are pleased that Progressio has highlighted Tesco’s role in raising industry standards in water management in areas such as the Ica Valley. We have a strong record in this area and our Nurture standard is regularly reviewed and improved. We acknowledge there is more to do and so we are continually working with our suppliers to help them minimise their environmental impact, including water use.”

– Guardian service