Peru Curbs Coca Growth in 2023: First Decline in Seven Years

Peru's coca leaf growing area decreased by 2.3% in 2023, marking the first decline since 2015, reported the anti-drug commission, DEVIDA. Despite the reduction, the VRAEM remains the largest region for coca planting. Potential cocaine production also fell, although global demand for cocaine continues to rise.

Peru's coca leaf growing area shrank by 2.3% in 2023, after increasing every year since 2015, said a report published on Wednesday by the country's anti-drug commission, DEVIDA. Coca leaves are traditionally chewed or made into a tea, but analysts and government officials say that the majority of the crops are used to make cocaine.

"For the first time after seven years (of growth) we have managed to reduce the trend," DEVIDA head Carlos Antonio Figueroa told a press conference about the report's publication. The coca plant covered an area of 92,784 hectares (229,274 acres) last year, compared with the 95,008 hectares registered in 2022, the report showed.

Figueroa highlighted that out of the 13 coca leaf production regions identified in Peru, only five showed growth in the crop, including the Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro area known as the VRAEM, located in the Andean center and the county's Amazon rainforest. The size of Puerto Rico, the VRAEM is where drug traffickers operate in alliance with remnants of the Shining Path rebel group, according to the police, and continues to be the largest region for coca planting and cocaine production in the country, with 38,253 hectares in 2023, 7.2% larger than in 2022.

Figueroa pointed out that potential cocaine production from the crops also fell in 2023 in Peru, to around 800 metric tons, from the 870 tons estimated in the previous year. Despite the decline in Peru, "in the global context, demand for cocaine continues to increase," the report said.

Illegal cocaine production in the world has hit an all-time high at over 2,700 metric tons of pure cocaine, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's World Drug Report, published earlier on Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)