IATP Senior Fellow Mark Muller is working in a volunteer program in Honduras through July. He is blogging periodically on his experiences there.
Anyone who has traveled in Latin America knows to expect to drink lots of soft drinks. Coke and Pepsi have woven themselves into the fabric of society amazingly well. Every family that we have visited here, including some that are very poor, have given us a glass of soda. As much of the available water has bacterial concerns, for most travelers visiting a home or in many restaurants, the healthier choice is the sugar-filled, carbonated option.
The distribution network developed by these companies is stunning. Coke and Pepsi trucks ramble down these horrible secondary roads to small villages that even many local Hondurans don't know exist. And more often than not, the little stores in these villages will have a large advertising sign, graced with a Coke or Pepsi emblem.
It has been several years since I've traveled in Central America, and what has surprised me this time is how often I am buying from multinational corporations in addition to Coke and Pepsi. Here in Choluteca, Honduras there are two supermarket-type stores. The fancier store, with air conditioning, is called Maxi-Bodega. It is located on the outskirts of town just off of the Pan-American Highway, next to the Pizza Hut and Wendy's. It has the look and feel of corporate, chain store ownership.
The second store, Dispensa Familiar, is located in the old part of town and does not have the same corporate feel as Maxi-Bodega. It is close to where we live, and seems to be the store of choice for the middle class of Choluteca. Unfortunately, these two stores are just two sides of the same coin - they are both owned by Wal-Mart. And in both stores one can readily by meat products from Cargill, cereals from General Mills, prepared foods from Kraft, etc.
To be honest, the presence of multinationals is one of the reasons we chose this location. We figured an occasional trip to Pizza Hut would help our kids cope with the radical transition we've caused in their diets. And as much as I like to eat local, I also love the opportunity to buy imported lettuce, cheese, apples and wheat flour. I expected to have some of my money go toward multinational corporations, but it is happening more than I anticipated.
To a surprising degree, the food dollar of the upper and middle classes of Choluteca are captured by multinational corporations. There certainly remains a thriving local market, particularly for the region's plentiful tropical fruits, meats, and other staples. But for many other necessities of life, the Wal-Mart supermarkets have become a preferred option.
I've been asking around to try to find out why so many people here shop at Wal*Mart. Just as in the United States, Wal*Mart has excelled at conveniently providing low-cost goods. Rather than wandering around the cramped public markets and buying from a half-dozen different vendors, the supermarkets provide shopping carts, parking lots, spacious aisles, competitive and set prices, and credit card sales. For the wealthier people in town that have cars, Wal*Mart is much, much more convenient.
It raises the question of how much of the food dollar is actually staying in the community. I'm sure that as we slowly learn more about Choluteca, we'll find more local stores and get savvier with using the public market. Similarly, it took us a little while to get situated in Minneapolis and take advantage of the co-ops, CSAs and other opportunities to eat and shop locally.
How beneficial has globalization been for the Choluteca economy? They are dependent on selling tropical fruits, sugar, and shrimp into the global economy at wholesale prices (and many of these exporters are foreign-owned companies). In return, the local consumers are purchasing some of their food, much of their clothing, and all of their electronics from global markets at retail prices. The few products that have remained local tend to be the low-value commodities like corn and beans. Having access to computers and the like is a huge benefit, and the city of Choluteca has certainly benefited from being the region´s shopping hub. But overall, the trade patterns appear to leave the region further behind, particularly the rural communities that have few economic development opportunities.
