Bogota | A near 75 per cent crash in the price of coca, the chief ingredient in cocaine, is contributing to food insecurity in Colombia and causing displacement, as people leave areas that depend on the illicit crop, according to an internal United Nations presentation seen by Reuters.
Historically, coca crops have provided better incomes than legal alternatives for thousands of rural Colombian families, with drug-trafficking groups often footing the costs of transport, fertilisers and other supplies.
Now coca-growing farmers have no buyers for the leaves or coca base leading to economic hardship amid high inflation, according to an internal presentation from the United Nations World Food Program.
“There is no cash to buy food and the inflation of [food prices] is rising,” the presentation, dated June, said.
The WFP confirmed the document’s provenance.
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