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Cocaine should overtake oil to become Colombia’s main export, as the narcotic’s production continues to expand, according to estimates by Bloomberg Economics.
Cocaine export revenues rose to $18.2 billion in 2022, only slightly behind $19.1 billion in oil exports, Hernandez said in the note.
Oil exports fell 30% in the first half of 2023 while the cocaine trade rose steadily, Bloomberg economist Felipe Hernandez wrote.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said cocaine has always been a top export for his country, in a message on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
“Sad reality of oil economies that neglect that production, and not extraction, is the source of wealth. We want a productive Colombia.”
Petro was responding to a post on X by Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay of the opposition Democratic Center party. “This problem is increasingly greater,” Uribe Turbay said, including a link to Bloomberg News’ story published Sept. 14. “We must stop Petro from turning Colombia into a narco state.”