Coca production in Colombia went down 3.7% in 2009, according to a report by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy released to several media on Thursday.
Colombia’s capacity to grow coca fell to 270 metric tons. In 2008, the figure was 280. In hectares, coca cultivation went from 120,000 to 116,000 in the period, the office said.
According to the U.S., coca production has dropped drastically since the beginning of Plan Colombia, a bilateral plan to fight drug trafficking from Colombia to the U.S. In 2001, Colombia produced 700 metric tons.
Coca production in Peru, the world’s second largest coca producer, went up in 2009 and reached 225 metric tons. Bolivia, the world’s third largest coca producing country, produced 195 metric tons, the same as the year before.
The U.S. numbers differ from those of the United Nations, that in June said that Peru surpassed Colombia as the world’s biggest cocaine producer.
Colombian government figures claimed that the area under coca cultivation in Colombia stood at 68,000 hectares in 2009.