Colombia has experienced a precipitous drop in the price of the raw material, the coca leaf. The rise of synthetic opiates such as fentanyl, the overproduction of coca and beatings to drug traffickers are some of the hypotheses put forward to explain this price collapse.
The incomes of at least 250,000 families depend on this crop, or 1.5% of the country's 50 million inhabitants, according to official figures, while drug trafficking money represents 2 to 3% of Colombia's GDP.