Colombia continues to be the world’s number one cocaine producer despite increasingly effective measures to eradicate coca, revealed the annual report from the International Narcotics Control Board on Tuesday.
According to the report, Colombia stays ahead of Peru and Bolivia as the world’s largest producer of coca.
According to the report, “South America accounted for a total of 317 tons of seized cocaine in 2006 (44 per cent of the world total for that year) and 442 tons in 2009 (60 per cent of the world total).”
Coca cultivation has also decreased significantly in Colombia. “The area under illicit cultivation in Colombia decreased by 11,000 ha from 2009, to 62,000 ha (a decrease of 15 per cent),” the report said.
At the same time, coca cultivation went up 2% in Peru which according to the report produced only 800 hectares less than Colombia.
In 2010 alone, 43,792 hectares of coca were manually eradicated in Colombia, which represents 27% of the known crop, and 101,939 hectares were sprayed aerially.
Cocaine eradication in Colombia has increased over the past few years and more cocaine is now seized in South America than in its larger recipient markets in the U.S. and Europe.
U.S. market share has declined but it still continues to be the largest market and an estimated 90% of cocaine in the U.S. comes from Colombia, said the report. European cocaine consumption is more mixed.
