Quinoa is a cereal crop grown on the Altiplano, a high barren plateau in the Andes of South America. It is a traditional staple food in Peru and Bolivia. In recent years, as its nutritional properties have become known, there has been a huge increase in demand from richer, health-conscious consumers in Europe and North America. Figures 1 - 3 show how the market changed. You can see that between 2001 and 2011, the price of quinoa trebled, and production almost doubled. Figure 3 indicates the strength of the increase in demand: spending on imports of quinoa rose from just $2.4 million to $43.7 million in 10 years.

Figure1 1,400 Bolivia 1,200 Price of quinoa ($/tonne) Peru 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Year Figure2 50 Import demand for quinoa ($ millions) All other countries United States 40 Canada EU-27 30 20 10 0 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 Year Figure3 5. How could you account for the rapid price rise in 2008 and 2009? 6. Would you expect the price to fall eventually to its original level