MARSELLA, Colombia — A boom in Latin America's exports of farm products and natural resources is lifting standards of living, creating jobs and offering guarded hope that the region may improve education and reduce its many social ills.
Surging prices of commodities such as coffee, soybeans, copper and petroleum -- largely because of exploding demand from China and India -- are bringing newfound prosperity to the region's farmers, miners and workers, according to analysts and recent studies.
Violence and public disorderliness are down in towns such as this one, located in the heart of Colombia's coffee-growing region. Poverty also has declined, as has unemployment since 2003. And Latin American countries are using their new wealth to boost spending on health, education and public works projects.
But experts say the region's problems are still daunting. Eventually, they say, commodity prices will level off or even fall. And although Latin American countries are in much better shape to avoid a severe economic downturn, experts worry that the nations aren't converting their windfall into something much more durable and ultimately productive by investing in human capital. More than 40% of the continent's people still live in poverty, according to a recent United Nations study.
"The region is still too dependent on commodities and needs to be more active in developing manufacturing efficiency and competitiveness, which is the real long-term solution," said Jose Antonio Ocampo, U.N. undersecretary for economic and social development.
The commodity boom has been good for people like coffee grower Alberto Zapata. Here in this bustling hill town 200 miles west of the capital city of Bogota, prices for Zapata's beans are up 40% since early last year. The profits have enabled him to pay off debt, invest in his farm and even buy a used truck.
"It's the best market in 15 years," said Zapata, adding that the entire town of 23,000 seemed to have kicked into a higher gear of prosperity.
Affluence also reigns half a hemisphere away in Pergamino, Argentina, the heart of that country's booming soybean industry. Farmer Federico Varela says he and his neighbors are cashing in on the 20% rise in soybean prices and export sales stoked by soy-mad China. The Asian nation last year snapped up 7.8 million tons, or one-fifth of Argentina's crop, up from zero in the early 1990s.
