Colombia’s potential cocaine exports soared to a record 1,925 metric tons in 2023, despite increasingly successful efforts to intercept drug shipments, according to numbers released by the United Nations and the government.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Colombia’s potential cocaine production increased a staggering 53% to 2,664 metric tons in 2023.
The Defense Ministry reported earlier that security forces last year seized 739.5 metric tons, which was 10% more than the year before.
Potential cocaine production and exports
Last year’s increase in potential cocaine production is partly due to an increase in the number of hectares used for cocaine cultivation.
The UNODC registered a 10% increase in hectares used for coca cultivation, which went from 230,000 hectares in 2022 to 253,300 hectares last year.
Hectares used for coca cultivation
This increase took place in 16 of the 19 provinces in Colombia where coca is being cultivated, mainly in the periphery, according to the UNODC’s annual report on illicit crops.
Other factors, like a higher crop yield and improved cocaine production techniques, also contributed to the sharp rise.
The rise in coca cultivation and potential cocaine production persists despite multiple strategies that have been tried out to curb cocaine production over the past decades.
At the moment, a myriad of illegal armed groups benefit from the drug trade. Guerrilla groups that control significant parts of southern and eastern Colombia have long taxed drug traffickers for moving cocaine out of guerrilla territories.
Paramilitary organizations and organized crime groups have long dominated the export of the cocaine to consumption markets in North America and Europe.
Smaller organized crime groups have increased drug sales in Colombian cities.