"Amid this dizzying boom, economist Daniel Mejia is about to publish a revealing study concluding that cocaine trafficking generates an average annual revenue of $15.3 billion in Colombia. This figure is equivalent to 4.2% of the national GDP and the equivalent of the value of legal sectors of the economy such as construction. From this perspective, the concern of several analysts in a country where wealth generation and private demand have been intertwined in one way or another with the specter of illegality is understandable."
"Data from the 2025 UN Drug Report, compiled by a specialized UN division, show that the area planted with coca leaf increased from 230,000 hectares in 2022 to 253,000 in 2023. According to the results, Colombia is the world's leading producer of this plant the main raw material of cocaine accounting for 67.3% of the total existing crop."
"Despite decades of control policies, aerial spraying of illicit crops, manual eradication, prohibition and seizure, and the extradition of drug lords, the area devoted to this plant has continued to expand unchecked year after year. The same has happened with the production of the alkaloid. And, despite the fact that the paralysis in global trade due to the pandemic represented an unprecedented pause, rates have soared again."
U.S. decertification removed Colombia from a preferred-ally list while coca cultivation expanded from 230,000 hectares in 2022 to 253,000 in 2023. Colombia accounts for 67.3% of the world's coca crop. Cocaine trafficking produces an estimated $15.3 billion per year, equivalent to 4.2% of national GDP and comparable to the value of legal sectors such as construction. Decades of eradication, aerial spraying, manual removal, seizures and extraditions have not halted crop or alkaloid production. Pandemic-related trade pauses briefly slowed movement, but production and trafficking rates rebounded, prompting policy shifts toward harm-reduction approaches.
Read at english.elpais.com
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