Peruvian coffee prices are low, organic coffee certification is difficult! Coca farmers give up their crops and plant coca

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Peru's main coffee association says Peruvian coffee growers are abandoning their farms to grow coca, the main ingredient of cocaine, because of falling coffee prices and slow certification of organic beans.

The National Coffee Federation (JNC) said that since December last year, farmers began to flock to drug trafficking areas to work on coca plantations, where they can earn a higher income of 70-120 Peruvian new sol (US $21-36) per day.

JNC president Tomas Cordova said, "Coffee. Exports are really in trouble, we lack government support and there is no clear action to overcome the problem, "which leads to poverty, unemployment and an increase in illegal crops."

Peru and the United States have spent years investing in projects to help coca farmers switch to alternative crops, mainly coffee and cocoa. But Peru's potential cocaine production rose 20% to 491 tons in 2017, a 25-year high, according to a White House report last November.

According to a report, coca cultivation increased by 14 per cent in 2017 to 49,900 hectares because of rising coca leaf prices and a reduction in acreage destroyed by the authorities.