Area of Colombian coca cultivation drops by 62% in 10 years

The number of hectares of Colombian land used for coca cultivation has dropped by 62% from 402 acres in 2000 to 153 acres in 2010 according to preliminary figures from the Colombian statistics agency DANE.

The number of hectares of harvested coca fell from 400 acres in 2000 to 166 acres in 2010, a drop of 59%. DANE produced these figures using data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The proportion of GDP of illicit crops in relation to national GDP at current prices fell from 1.7% in 2000 to 0.4% in 2010. The biggest drop in this figure was registered between the 2002 and 2003 when the the proportion fell by 0.3 percentage points from 1.5% to 1.2%. There was no registered drop in this figure between 2008 and 2009 as the proportion remain static at 0.5%.

In 2000 the GDP of illicit coca was valued at $1.873 billion but in 2010 this value had fallen to  $1.196 billion, a reduction of 36%.

The figures relating to coca cultivation are definitive for the years 2000-2008, provisional for the year 2009 and preliminary for the year 2010. Not included in the figures are the merchandising or associated capital flows because official data does not exist.

The supply of cocaine hydrochloride has fallen substantially as a consequence of the reduction in the areas of cultivation, a decrease reflected in the exportation to the rest of the world.

The methodology used to estimate the production of coca was divided in to processes, the agricultural phase with the production of cocaine base, poppy latex, marijuana and the industrial phase with the production of cocaine hydrochloride and heroin.

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