LatinNews Daily Report - 02 May 2012

Peru | Coca plantations on the rise. On 1 May the president of Peru’s national coffee association, César Rivas Peña, said that despite the government’s coca eradication programme, his organisation has seen an increase in coca plantations in areas where coffee is traditionally grown. According to Rivas Peña, “while in 2000 it was estimated that dry coca leaf yields were 1,500 kilos per hectare, in 2010 we have seen a yield of 2,500 kilos, which represents a vertiginous 66% increase in 10 years”.  Rivas Peña said that according to his calculations, between 2006 and 2010 there has been a 19% increase in coca plantations in the areas of Selva Central, Puno, La Convención, and the Apurímac river valley, which are traditional coffee growing areas. All these are within the Valley of the Apurímac and Ene Rivers (Vrae), where narco-trafficking groups are believed to operate freely. (It is also the site of the latest mass kidnapping.) Importantly, Rivas Peña blamed the increase on the government’s lack of support for coffee and cocoa producers, who are now suffering because of low international prices. “Coffee is now sold at PEN6.50 per kilo, while production costs are PEN8.50”, Rivas Peña maintained, adding that, “we have gone from the euphoria of good prices to an uncertain situation in which illegal economic activity expands”.

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