Coca cultivation in Bolivia, the world’s third-biggest cocaine producer after Peru and Colombia, fell last year as the government stepped up eradication efforts, official data released on Monday showed.
But higher prices for the coca leaves used to make cocaine meant the crop remained attractive for farmers, according to an annual survey compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Bolivian government.
The cultivation of coca bushes, which yield the leaves, declined around 12 per cent to some 27,200 hectares, ending years of rising crop cultivation, the last year coca monitoring survey found.
Cesar Guedes, the UNODC representative in Bolivia, thanked the government for its drug control efforts in a statement. He noted that coca crop eradication rose by more than a quarter to 10,500 hectares while total coca leaf yield was reduced to around 48,100 tonnes from 55,500 tonnes.
Coca leaf prices rose by 31 per cent in government-approved markets and by an estimated 16 per cent in illegal markets, it found. Bolivian farmers are allowed to grow a limited amount of coca for traditional uses such as tea-making and chewing.
“Higher prices are making coca more attractive but farmers need viable alternatives if we are to curb illicit crop-growing over the long term,” Guedes said.