Colombia breaks record for coca cultivation: UN report

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Coca crops hit historic levels in Colombia in 2021, reversing a three-year trend, a UN agency said Thursday in an annual report.

Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer, reported a 43% increase in areas planted with coca, from 143,000 hectares (353,000 acres) in 2020 to 204,000 hectares (504,000 acres) in 2021, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The country managed to slightly decrease its coca cultivation since 2018 but government efforts to replace the crop have been of little avail as farmers say they have no other alternative to making a living.

Along with drug cultivation, drug production from Colombia to the US and Europe has also grown from 1,010 tons of cocaine to 1,400 tons.

“This is the highest figures in our 22 years of monitoring,” UNODC Andean and Southern Cone regional director Candice Welsh said in announcing the report.

UNODC said the increase in coca cultivation and cocaine production is due mainly to "territorial vulnerability," the increase in global demand and the presence of armed actors who profit from the business.

It is the first UN drug report received by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who took office in August on a pledge to end a “failed” war on drugs, which has been the result, he said, of pressure exercised by the US to reduce coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production.