“Carlos,” a 36-year-old coca grower residing in Llorente, Colombia, finds himself in a predicament, holding onto kilograms of valuable coca paste used in cocaine production that he has stashed under his bed. Normally, this illegal stockpile would be worth thousands of dollars, but a sudden scarcity of buyers has left him stranded and worried about the future of his children.
To protect his identity from armed groups operating near his farm, Carlos requested anonymity. In Llorente, an increasing number of small-scale coca producers, like Carlos, are concerned about their next meal as they struggle to make ends meet. With their hands covered in scratches, groups of skilled coca pickers known as “raspachines” swiftly move through the vast green fields in Llorente.
Once the coca leaves are harvested, they reach Carlos, who cooks them with a mixture of chemicals on a small stove until they transform into a white substance. Carlos informed AFP that cultivating his two hectares of coca cost him approximately $660, and he would normally sell the product for about $4,000. However, due to a decline in demand and historically low prices, he has only managed to sell $154 worth of coca paste. Ultimately, the cocaine derived from his paste would be worth millions.
Carlos expressed his frustrations with the current state of affairs, describing the prices as “very bad” within his makeshift lab. The only option for him is to hold onto the paste, hoping that prices and demand will eventually rise.
Experts suggest that the drop in prices could be attributed to the rise of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, an excess of coca production, changing consumer habits, and recent setbacks faced by Colombia’s powerful drug cartels. Despite coca cultivation being illegal, it remains a key source of income for many people in Colombia, with approximately 250,000 families relying on it for their livelihoods, constituting about 1.5% of the population.
However, coca growers along the country’s Pacific coast have witnessed a significant decline in income since the beginning of the year. This region, plagued by armed and violent dissidents of the disbanded FARC guerrilla group, accounted for around 44% of Colombia’s 204,000 hectares of coca cultivation in 2021, according to the UN. Nilson Solis, a grower from Olaya Herrera near the Pacific coast, stated that the price of a kilogram of coca paste has dropped from approximately $695 to $440 in just a few months.
Despite Colombia’s record-breaking coca cultivation, conflicts between drug cartels and other armed groups vying for resources and territory may have made it more challenging to transport the product. Additionally, the “overproduction” of coca, with higher alkalinity and yield, has led to a reduced demand as less is required to produce cocaine. Moreover, alternative drugs like ecstasy are gaining popularity among younger consumers.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has raised the possibility that changing American consumption patterns and the proliferation of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in the United States might be contributing to the lower demand for cocaine. Petro has criticized the U.S.-led “war on drugs” that has marginalized and impoverished rural Colombians, proposing an amnesty for drug traffickers who surrender and abandon the trade. He has also suggested purchasing arable land to redistribute among small farmers, enabling them to sustain themselves with legal crops, free from the violent control of drug gangs.
As hunger looms over more and more coca growers, individuals like Solis are considering alternatives, including engaging in illegal logging. Solis lamented the dire situation, saying that they have nothing left and barely enough to purchase a pound of rice and a small amount of oil.
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