Perceived by many as the next “transformative technology,” like electricity or the Internet, nanotechnology encompasses a broad range of tools, techniques, and applications that manipulate or incorporate materials at the nanoscale (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter) in order to yield novel properties that do not exist at larger scales.
These novel properties may enable new or improved materials, products, and processes that are more efficient, effective, and inexpensive than those currently available. For example, nanomaterials are being developed that provide greater strength, durability, and flexibility than steel, but are also lighter-weight and less expensive. Additionally, nanotechnology may significantly increase production capacity by enabling manufacturing processes that create less pollution and have modest capital, land, labor, energy, and material requirements.
For these reasons, many people have identified nanotechnology as a promising area of technological advancement and innovation for commodity-dependent developing countries and developing countries in general. Conversely, others have said the very characteristics of nanotechnology that make it potentially suitable for developing countries also raise the possibility that it could displace commodities, labor, and industries and worsen the overall position of developing countries.
The net effects of nanotechnology on supply and demand markets for commodities and primary goods are difficult to predict and will likely vary for different commodities, technologies, and countries. Developing countries involved in the commodity sectors, however, face a number of common potential opportunities and risk related to the emergence of new nanotechnology-based materials, products, and processes.
These potential opportunities include, but are not limited to:
- Low-risk options for moving up the value-chain by enhancing export commodities and primary products with nanotechnology additives, coatings, or processes;
- More energy, input, and/or labor efficient or otherwise improved commodity and primary product production methods;
- New markets for nanotechnology-based materials and products that use export commodities as feedstocks; and
- New and wider industrial and commercial markets for export commodities and primary products.
The potential risks include, but are not limited to:
- Decline in global demand for export commodities and primary products due to new nanomaterials and nanoenabled products that can function as substitutes with equal or better performance at comparable costs;
- Decline in global demand for export commodities due to nanotechnologies that increase potency from smaller quantities of commodity materials or that enhance the longevity of commodity materials; and
- Increase in global supply of export commodities and/or loss of comparative advantages due to nanotechnology-based production processes that enable cheaper, localized, and/or unrestricted production of those commodities.
The Nanotechnology and Commodities Database describes some examples of specific nanotechnology applications that may present potential opportunities and risks for specific commodity sectors. More detailed information on the opportunities and risks of nanotechnology for commodity producers and development is available in Meridian’s background paper, Nanotechnology, Commodities, and Development.
