markets, for example for oriental vegetables on the east coast of the United States, or for organic fruits in Europe and throughout the United States and Canada. This means that as quotas and tariff barriers have disappeared, the scenario offers, in the best of cases, equal conditions and, therefore, those countries that meet the technical requirements (quality, certification, traceability, biosecurity, social and environmental responsibility) will have the best opportunity to gain access to, position themselves in and stay in those markets.

LAC has a high ceiling for growing and tapping unsatisfied markets for organic and functional foods which by the year 2006 came to approximately US$40 billion. In the specific case of organic and ecologically-sound foods, the challenge is that organic agriculture requires more specialized management and the certifications are expensive for small-scale producers. This has limited the participation of these producers in the global organic market, but has also stimulated the formation of cooperative producers’ organizations, which bring other secondary benefits (Bray et al.,
2005) (see 1.7.1).

As for the challenge of regulations, Latin American producers and exporters have to comply not only with good agricultural and generic manufacturing practices established by Codex Alimentarius, but in addition the markets themselves have defined their protocols and quality and safety standards such as EurepGAP for the European market and USA-GAP and HACCP for the U.S. and Asian markets. These standards impose the challenge on Latin American and Caribbean agricultural producers and exporters of having to make adjustments in their production processes and physical production facilities so as to be able to comply with the markets’ quality standards. Nowadays the producers in LAC who want to become inserted in the international markets are forced to adopt a culture of quality production based on continuous improvement and evolution of

their products based strictly on market requirements. This process entails higher production costs and requires use of optimal methods, which at times wipes out the actual potential of many producers in the region, especially small-scale producers.

1.6.2.2 Regional trends in production
The region has a total of 2.018 billion ha, of which approximately 726 million (i.e., 36%) are under agricultural production, including seasonal crops (7.1%), permanent crops (about 1%) and pastureland (about 30%). In the last 15 years, the total agricultural area increased 4.5%, while the total covered by forest (including forest plantations) diminished 1.3%. The area under permanent crops such as cacao and coffee experienced the greatest increase in area, 10.5%, although in the last decade, with the collapse of coffee prices, the area planted in coffee diminished in almost the entire region (Calo and Wise, 2005).

The change in land use varied by region (Table 1-8). Figure 1-6 shows the increase in the total area under agricultural production by region from 1961 to 2003. The Southern Cone, the largest region in area, also saw the greatest increase in area planted. In the three decades from 1961 to 1990, the area under production increased by 27%. Although the rate of increase has diminished, since 1990 there was a 6% increase in the region; Brazil, French Guiana and Paraguay are the countries that saw the largest percentage increases. Suriname, Uruguay and Guyana have experienced almost no change since the 1990s, while Chile suffered a decline of almost 6% in the total area in agriculture.

          The main change in land use in the Southern Cone has been due to the increased production of soybean (Figure 1-7), especially in Brazil and Argentina; the total area planted in soybean was almost 47 million ha in these two countries alone, which represents 8% of the total agricultural area