Bolivia Reduces Coca Crop for Second Straight Year: UN

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says Bolivia’s coca production dropped by 7 percent from 2011 to 2012. (See full report in PDF) This follows an 11 percent reduction from the year before.

The biggest drop came in the largest coca growing region of the country known as Yungas de la Paz, which went from 18,200 hectares to 16,900 hectares, according to the UNODC. 

The agency says that two major factors played a role in the drop: 1) the government’s efforts to “eradicate/rationalize” the size of the fields; 2) the drop in yield due to the long periods in which the fields have been cultivated.

Bolivia allows 11,000 hectares of coca to be grown legally for local sale and consumption in traditional forms.

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The results may surprise some in the US government who say that Bolivia is not complying with its commitments to lower drug production and trafficking. Bolivia has expelled most US anti-narcotics agencies, while the US announced in May it was shutting down its last remaining offices there.

Still, there are some contradictory figures in the report. The price of coca went down five percent, according to the UNODC, a fact that could suggest an increase in supply.

Seizures of cocaine paste and processed cocaine, or cocaine hydrochloride (HCl), also went in opposite directions. Cocaine paste seizures rose significantly, according to the report, suggesting that Bolivia is becoming a more regular supplier of the rising crack cocaine markets in neighboring Argentina and Brazil.

HCl seizures, meanwhile, were down, which may not necessarily mean that cocaine production has dropped. What is not known -- and what the UNODC says it is studying -- is the current yield of Bolivian coca. Still, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, in its most recent statement on cocaine production in the region, says that overall production of cocaine in Bolivia is down to an estimated 155 metric tons, from 190 metric tons in 2011.

In Colombia, yields have risen even while the number of hectares under coca cultivation has dropped, accounting for the steady production of HCl throughout this period when one would expect a more dramatic drop in cocaine production.

The report also follows the declaration of another major export industry leader, coffee, that its producers were switching to coca. That declaration was, however, more speculative than scientific.

Bolivia Coca Crops (Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)