The primary export trap and the impacts on food and nutritional security in southern cone countries

Abstract

This work is part of a postdoctoral research in which the strategies of rural social movements for the commercialization of their production were discussed in the context of primarization of their economies. The objective of this particular article is to analyze the primary specialized export option and how it relates to the Food and Nutritional Insecurity indices. The analysis starts from Brazil but is also supported by two other countries in the Latin American Southern Cone, Paraguay and Argentina, since they also experience this context of primary export specialization. The hypothesis is that the process leads to internal food shortages in the countries, in addition to generating impacts on the economy as a whole, given the resulting deindustrialization. The research is based on data from the Economic Complexity Observatory (oec.world) of the World Bank, as well as socioeconomic indices of each country studied. The theoretical background is a dialogue with the theory of dependency and with the notion of the Agribusiness Pact developed by Guilherme Delgado (2011 and 2022). Field work was also done in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay when central markets were visited and members of social movements were interviewed. It is concluded that not only is there a worsening in the rates of food insecurity, but also that this political economy option negatively affects the social and economic development of the countries as a whole.