Vicuña Fiber will be Industrialized

Posted by Tichauer on January 22, 2012 None comments

Se industrializará fibra de la vicuña.

A pilot center will be built in the community of San Andrés de Machaca for producers to give added value to the wool.
The departmental secretary of Natural Resources, Biodiversity and Environment, Wara Argandoña, reported that under the National Programme for Conservation of the Vicuna, this year, as Governor of La Paz, will begin to participate in the shearer, relocation of the fiber and other field activities to encourage wool producers.
To this end, plans to build a pilot for the improvement of vicuna wool and add value.
Communities will benefit. Speaking to La Prensa, said Argandoña today, vicuna fiber is sold raw and without due process to increase its value, “so what we want is to add value and to train farmers on proper care, handling and processing of wool. ”
He said that the Pilot Treatment Center seeks to increase the number of communities manage fiber in the department of La Paz.
He mentioned that this plant will be located in the community of San Andrés de Machaca, which is one of the main regions where there are plenty of vicunas and people dedicated to the sale of wool.
“What we have designed is an initial process of industrialization of the fiber, so, in the pilot center will mow and wool preserved,” said Argandoña.
He also argued that it expects to be inserted into the industrial park Callcuta in El Alto, a textile factory on the basis of vicuna wool, something that will be proposed to the national and departmental authorities.
More control. The Secretary Department of Environment said that under the conservation program with the goal you have, will work on the management and conservation of wildlife, “there is much traffic and poaching of endangered animals, we have several projects designed to preserve the biodiversity and forestry. So let’s create the Forest Control Unit to control the backbones of the department so we can prevent illegal trafficking in wildlife or their skins. ”
He mentioned that this is a proposal for restructuring of the secretariat, which has presented the governor Cocarico Caesar, and that it is working for approval. “It depends on the resources, we are waiting for approval of all budgets for each unit.”

112 000 vicuñas were calculated during the census conducted by the Ministry of Environment in 2009.

“We are expecting that the municipality assign us land to build the pilot center for community members to make the process of industrialization.”

Alpaca Fashion 2011, integrates SME’s to demanding markets

Posted by Tichauer on January 2, 2012 None comments

Original article posted by Bolivian Thoughts, November 14, 2011

Alpaca Fashion Event 2011, organized by the Chamber of Exporters of La Paz (Camex), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its project PC-Bolivia and the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia, promoted the first “inverse” trade mission for American buyers for the sector of goods made of camelid fibers.

Camex’s manager, Beatriz Espinoza, said that “we hope to reach U.S. $ 400,000 in business intentions and about five or six companies with whom to do business over the long-term.”

“This moment is to meet, see the products and communicate, where we can agree on samples; then orders will come and I have to check everything with my team, and together we make decisions. This may be a matter of few days or several months, depending on the articles and communicating with producers,” explained Jim Petkiewicz, from the company Frog Tree Yarns T & C Imports.

This chart represents Bolivian alpaca produce development; the first numbers are the development of manufactures with fine fibers, volumes in kilograms and value in American dollars. In the middle, next to the map, you can see number of employees by cities, 2008 figures. At the bottom of the chart, the amount of exports in dollars for 2010; and to the right the pie chart with the percentages exported by country, USA being 26%.

In Bolivia, the camels and clothing sector in 2010 registered an export value of 9.59 billion, up by 18% as compared to 2009. Until August this year, it exported 6.06 million dollars, an amount exceeding by 17% over the same period in 2010.

Is there a demand in the world for this type of product? The answer was yes, with some details of what happens in the markets. “We live in a globalized world and everything has its purpose. What we see in 2011 is a drop in demand for the same crisis we are experiencing in our country (USA). But what we’ve seen is that there will be more demand from other countries like New Zealand, Australia and some in Europe,” said Petkiewicz.

“You have to defend your share of the market and can not sit or focus on one market alone, because if that is going under, you lose…”, said one buyer.

In this context, it’s up to Bolivia to continue competing at a disadvantage in livestock markets for alpaca. The company representative Peruvian Link, Karina Pomroy, emphasized that Bolivian exports to the U.S. market is not competitive because Bolivians must pay, unlike Peruvians who don’t pay those tariffs.

“In the U.S., they buy alpaca products because they know they are quality products,” said the Vice President for Casmex, Larry Serrate.

He warned that “Peru has a very aggressive policy to cover the market, good for them, I wish we could imitate something. But we can not allow ourselves to be moved out of the U.S. market so easily. This initiative (Alpaca Fashion 2011) is to maintain what we have and expand on the possible markets.” This in the meantime, while Bolivian exporters wait for the signing of new agreements or tariff preferences to return in our aid, he said.

An interesting website is Bolivia Fair Trade, Art Crafts and natural products from Bolivia under Fair Trade Practices; use the link below.

Its vision: “Bolivia Fair Trade brings high quality apparel products and accessories to the North American consumer market from artisan groups, cooperatives, small businesses and entrepreneurial initiatives in Bolivia – South America. We promote Fair Trade with our purchasing practices, and we have a commitment to improve the living conditions for the people in Bolivia.”

http://boliviafairtrade.com/

Building Batteries for Electric Cars

Posted by Tichauer on March 7, 2011 None comments

While in Bolivia the government is trying to decide who will process the lithium reserves and invest in high technology in a country that currently offers nothing but instability, insecurity to foreign direct investment and conditions beyond reason new ventures are moving fast to develop the next generation of lithium batteries. The article explores in simple words how to produce the mighty alternative to store energy. The article was published in the MIT – Technology review March/April 2011 by Kevin Bullis

Assembling lithium batteries“…Quentin Sharpe, a technician in A123 Systems’ new battery factory in Livonia, Michigan, takes a foil packet out of a white plastic container and sets it down within reach of a robot, which scoops it up and adds it to a growing stack of metal plates and foil packets. It’s the start of a process that makes one of the dozens of types of battery packs assembled here—all of which will power advanced hybrid and electric vehicles designed to cut petroleum consumption.

Production of advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and hybrids has so far been dominated by companies in Asia, but the U.S. government hopes to see it become a major new industry in the United States. The new factory will have the capacity to produce 30,000 battery packs a year once all its equipment is up and running (A123′s plans call for the factory to be fully operational by this spring). It is one of nine that the U.S. Department of Energy helped fund in a $2 billion program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. A123 received $249 million in government funding for two facilities, which it matched with additional money from private sources. “Just a few years ago American businesses could only make 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries for hybrids and electric vehicles—just 2 percent,” President Obama said when he called in to the factory’s opening ceremony last fall. The new factories are meant to help increase the U.S. share to 40 percent of the world’s capacity…”

To see the entire article click here

Japan Embarks on High-Altitude Mission to Appropriate Bolivia’s Lithium

Posted by Tichauer on March 4, 2011 None comments

The following article published on February 25, 2011 in the Bolivia Weekly and was part of a report after the visit of the Japanese Emperor to Bolivia. Nothing has changed since the first reports on this matter back in 2007.

Lithium - Uyuni

LA PAZ – Two months after his interview with Emperor Akihito in Tokyo, President Evo Morales welcomes a large Japanese delegation that seeks to surpass Korea and Iran in the race to become the biggest shareholder in the mining of Bolivia’s lithium.

The meeting, which includes a dozen competing consortiums and governments, including the French Bolloré/Eramet and the state-owned Spanish company SEPI (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales), occurs at a time when the Bolivian government sees itself as obligated to industrialize its lithium by means of external involvement, despite its initial reticence and fruitless pursuits with other interested parties in this multimillion-dollar business.

Uyuni - Bolivia

The value of the “100 million tons of lithium in Bolivian salt flats is around $2.65 trillion,” estimated the government last year, in reference to this resource vital to the automotive industry, as well as the manufacture of computer and cell phone batteries, and more…

To read the entire article click here

Who Will Bring Water to the Bolivian Poor?

Posted by Tichauer on January 24, 2011 None comments

The article published in the NTY past December 15, 2005 by Juan Ferrero exposes in detail how things were two years after the “Water War” and the challenges ahead. I was reviewing the article after 5 years and seems like nothing has changed. Evo Morales is in power but the country is not going anywhere.

“…Bolivia’s economy, though, grew at a dismal pace. Even the fund, in a 2003 memo, noted that a fall in per capita income and employment contributed to “rising social tensions that erupted recently.”

The fund and other institutions that helped guide Bolivia’s economy blame grinding corruption, poor infrastructure and high pension costs. Officials at the I.M.F. also note that Bolivia, like other countries that seek help, come only when they are wracked by economic troubles that require tough choices.

“If you’re spending more than you’re earning, for a while that’s fine,” said Caroline Atkinson, deputy director of Western Hemisphere operations for the fund. “But if your borrowing gets too huge, then no one wants to fund you anymore, and you have to cut back.”…”

Hit here to see the entire article.

Melting in Andes Reveals Remains and Wreckage

Posted by Tichauer on January 23, 2011 None comments

This article published on the NYT on January 15 -2011, complements the previous post about global warming and the challenges ahead for cities and population that depends on the Andes – Glacial – reservoirs for its water supply.

LA PAZ, Bolivia — In the haunts of this city where climbers gather over plates of grilled llama and bottles of Paceña beer to swap tales of mountaineering derring-do, they feign boredom when talk turns to the 19,974-foot-high Huayna Potosí, a jagged Andean peak that looms over La Paz.

… Scientists say the retreat of the ice is an unexpected boon for those yearning to peer back in time.

“It looks like the warming trend seen in many regions is continuing,” said Gerald Holdsworth, a glaciologist at the Arctic Institute of North America in Calgary, Alberta. “There are still some large snowbanks left in promising places, and many glaciers of all different shapes, orientations and sizes, so the finds could go on for a long time yet.”…

Click here to read the entire article

In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change

Posted by Tichauer on November 22, 2010 None comments

In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change

By Elisabeth Rosenthal for the New York Times December 14, 2009

Milluni reservoir by Angel Franco NYT

The article exposes the fragility of the ecosystem fragility in the Andes and the High Plateau surrounding La Paz & El Alto.

EL ALTO, Bolivia — When the tap across from her mud-walled home dried up in September, Celia Cruz stopped making soups and scaled back washing for her family of five. She began daily pilgrimages to better-off neighborhoods, hoping to find water there….     Hit here for the full article.

Filling the Gap Between Farm and Fair Trade

Posted by Tichauer on October 26, 2010 1 comments

Filling the Gap Between Farm and Fair Trade

By DAVID BORNSTEIN Published in the New York Times on October 26 2010
A debate is pending on the reach and impact in price and poverty reduction of the fair trade seal and the fair trade organizations… the article starts the conversation…
We’ve all seen the ads for fair trade coffee with the beautiful photos of villagers hand picking coffee cherries in exotic regions around the globe. Fair trade is one of those ideas that’s always in the air, but we don’t often consider what it means. What does it really take to connect rural producers in the developing world with consumers in wealthy countries — so that everybody benefits?
See the entire article here

Technological Challenges almost solved

Posted by Tichauer on October 17, 2010 1 comments

Electrical Vehicles: Batteries now included

The missing piece of the electric-car jigsaw has just turned up. In this article published by The Economist on March 12th, 2009 we can find the links to the past, present and future of the electric car.

To see the full article hit here

In Bolivia, Untapped Bounty Meets Nationalism

Posted by Tichauer on October 17, 2010 216 comments

In Bolivia, Untapped Bounty Meets Nationalism

Noah Friedman-Rudovsky for The New York Time

This article published by the New York Times on February 2, 2009 explains the challenges and opportunities that bolivians face in order to achieve development, at least the natural resources are there.

Press here to see full article