Cocaine set to become Colombia's main export soon, says report

Cocaine is set to overtake oil to become Colombia's main export item as the government strengthens the fight against drug trafficking. According to a report by the news agency Bloomberg on Thursday (September 14), Colombia's oil exports posted a drop of 30 per cent in the first half and the revenue from cocaine has constantly gone up. This means that cocaine could be the country's number one export item as soon as this year.

“Cocaine export revenues jumped to $18.2 billion in 2022 — not far behind oil exports of $19.1 billion last year,” the report estimated, and pointed out that while the government was destroying laboratories where cocaine wasmanufactured from coca leaves, but this did not prevent production from expanding.

Govt changes approach towards drug trafficking

President Gustavo Petro's government has changed Colombia's approach towards drug trafficking, seeking to hit drug lords who benefit more from the sale of narcotics overseas rather than targeting coca leaf producers, who are the weakest link in the production chain. President Petro has been seeking talks with the nation’s main drug-trafficking groups, hoping to end the 60-year-long conflict through peace accords.

The report said that the new approach toward drugs is facilitating illegal groups to increase cocaine production. As per a United Nations report this week, cocaine output surged to a record 1,738 tonnes last year, while the amount of land planted with coca, the raw material for making the drug, rose 13% to a record 230,000 hectares (570,000 acres) in 2022 from the previous year.

Colombia proposes Latin American alliance to combat drug trafficking

A week back, Colombian President Petro proposed a Latin American alliance to bring a unified voice to the fight against drug trafficking. "It is time to rebuild hope and not repeat the bloody and ferocious wars, the ill-named 'war on drugs', viewing drugs as a military problem and not as a health problem for society," Petro said during the Latin America and Caribbean Conference on Drugs on September 9.

He also pushed for the reconsideration of an anti-drug strategy and urged for the need for a unified voice "that defends our society, our future and our history and stops repeating a failed discourse."

(With inputs from agencies)

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