Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producer, set a new record last year for manufacture of the drug and cultivation of the coca leaf it is made from, a United Nations report said Monday.
Coca leaf cultivation was 13 percent higher last year than in 2021 — spreading over 230,000 hectares — while cocaine production rose from 1,400 tons to 1,738, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
These were the highest numbers since the UN started monitoring the data in 2001, beating the record set in 2021. Most Colombian cocaine finds its way to the United States and Europe.
Nearly two-thirds of coca crops are grown in the southern departments of Narino and Putumayo bordering Ecuador, which is battling a scourge of drug gang-related violence, and in North Santander on the border with Venezuela.
Nearly half of drug crops are found in Indigenous reserves, some 10 percent in forest reserves and five percent in natural parks, according to the report.
