UN survey shows stable coca production in Peru, no major shift from Colombia

A new United Nations survey shows that that coca cultivation in Peru has remained stable over the past year - dispelling fears of a possible shift in coca growing from neighbouring Colombia, where a considerable decline had been recently registered.

According to the survey conducted by the Vienna-based UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Government of Peru, some 46,700 hectares of coca were under cultivation in that country last year, a one per cent increase from survey results for 2001.

The increase was mainly due to the rehabilitation of abandoned fields in important coca growing regions like Apurimac, which produces some 30 per cent of Peru's coca. The survey notes that the increase in Apurimac was also aided by the continuing worldwide depression in the price of coffee - the region's main alternative crop. These statistics follow UNODC's recent report on Colombia, which showed a 30 per cent reduction in coca cultivation from 2001 to 2002.

As a result, coca cultivation in the Andean region as a whole - which comprises Peru, Colombia and Bolivia - dropped by 17 per cent last year, to 173,100 hectares, the first decrease recorded in over a decade.

Despite these current developments, UNODC's Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa warned that Peru needs a strategy of provide attractive, viable options that will dissuade farmers from growing coca leaves. "This means more alternative development, aerial and land interdiction and precursor control," he said.

Mr. Costa noted that the pressure to shift coca growth from Colombia to Peru is expected to remain. He also pointed out that Peru's tendency towards high productivity in cultivation required greater use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in very serious environmental damage.