Coca leaf: Is it possible to industrialize all production?

The situation of the industrialization of the Coca leaf It is an issue that has been occupying an important space on the agenda, since the Government of President Pedro Castillo has shown, on more than one occasion, interested in managing it. Hence, the president has indicated on October 3 that the Executive would propose a project for the industrialization of the coca leaf and thus promote “True development with fellow coca growers.”

Later, he also mentioned that adjustments would be made in the National Coca Company (Enaco) and the National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (due).

The situation of the Coca leafHowever, it presents a series of problems that we will make below.

Figures available

In 2019, some 5’947.034 people over the age of 12 bought Coca leaf for traditional consumption, according to a report by due on the demand for this product. The total purchased was 10,691 tons (mt) that year. It is worth mentioning that in 2018, the potential production of Coca leaf was 126,603 mt.

According to these same statistics, 63% of the consumption of the Coca leaf It occurs in the mountains of the country. Likewise, 37% of buyers are people between 45 and 64 years old, and 32% are people between 30 and 44 years old.

The sale of Coca leaf for industrial uses reached a peak in 2018 with 440 mt., but fell in 2019 to 274 mt., mainly due to a lower sale of the product to industrial traders. However, the industrial production of the Enaco, a Peruvian state company dedicated to the commercialization of Coca leaf and derivatives, increased to 109 mt. in recent years, after falling in 2014, and exports rose to 151 mt. in 2019. The projection made by the report of due points out that the demand that met Enaco it ranged from 12% to 20%, meaning 122.63 mt.

It is worth mentioning that the exports reported in the last year are to a single buyer: the American Stepan Company. According to the United States Federal Register, they also requested to import the Coca leaf Johnson Matthey Inc and Cambrex Charles City companies.

Already in 2019, the Enaco it had planned to export instant coca powder and a coca distillate. The latter would be presented on the international market as a downside.

Census

The first registration of producers from Coca leaf legal dates from 1978. Three years later, in 1981, an update was carried out that allowed the inclusion of 9,305 new producers. After that, the document has not been updated again.

In 2003, the state company bought this resource from 13,606 registered producers, but in 2019 the number dropped to 8,066 producers.

“A political decision is needed. One of the benefits that registering the coca growers can bring is (determining) who they are, how many there are and what is really the amount of area that the cultivation implies “, considers former congressman Humberto Morales, who in 2019 presented a bill for the then Ministry of Agriculture, the Enaco and regional governments update the information in the registry. The former parliamentarian added that the way to update the registry does not necessarily go through Congress, as the Executive can also do it.

Why are not all coca growers included in the register? This is because not all provide the Coca leaf for the legal market, said Rubén Vargas, president of Enaco, to Epicento TV. He pointed out that “the market is absolutely small, limited” for the surplus of coca that exists in the country.

On the other hand, according to the purchase-sale report of the Coca leaf in the country, also from due, it is indicated that the Enaco It has had a presence in 7 of 16 coca-growing areas. In recent years, however, the state company no longer buys from the producers of Inambari-Tambopata, the third area with the highest production of Coca leaf in 2019, with 7,722 tm.

Drug trafficking

According to the Peruvian Observatory on Drugs due, in September of this year the national average price of the Coca leaf and cocaine derivatives was S / 5.64 per kilogram (kg.), while the basic cocaine paste (PBC) amounts to S / 2,074 per kg. and cocaine hydrochloride, at S / 3,984 per kg.

“Cocaine prices have international variations, depending on the persecution of it, but the [hoja de] coca continues to have the same price in the jungle “, Morales says.

Likewise, Vargas told El Comercio in October 2020 that 90% of the production of Coca leaf in more than 120 thousand hectares they end up in drug trafficking, while 10% is destined for traditional consumption.

More data

The production of Coca leaf in the country it reached 126,603 mt. in 2018 and crops covered 52,100 hectares. However, the quantity purchased by Enaco in that year it was 1,357 mt. In 2019, the figure increased to 1 40.98 mt.

The State resumed this October the eradication of Coca leaf after six months of suspension, in a context in which coca cultivation has jumped in recent years, from 49,800 hectares in 2017 to 88,200 in 2020, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy of the White House in USA.