Coca Colla

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Coca Colla Energy is a soft drink from Bolivia , the basic substances from the leaf of the South American coca plant are made.

composition

The name of the drink is composed on the one hand of the name of this shrub, the second half of the name refers to the indigenous population of the Bolivian highlands , who are popularly called " Collas ". The product contains extracts of the coca leaf as well as water, sugar , colorings, flavorings and caffeine , in addition it should (according to the head of the production plant, President Víctor Ledezma Fuentes) rich in calcium, vitamins A, E, B1, B2, iron, phosphorus, Zinc, be copper.

Coca bush

The cultivation of coca is only legal in certain quantities in the Andean countries, the processing of the leaves into cocaine or its intermediate products is strictly prohibited. Law 1008 has been in force in Bolivia since 1988 , which allows an annual cultivation area of ​​12,000 hectares in the Yungas region near La Paz for the traditional use of leaves. The origin of the drink goes back to initiatives by coca farmers ( Cocaleros ) to expand the legal uses for the coca bush . For many small farmers in the Bolivian Andean valleys, its cultivation is the only source of income, as the shrub can also be planted on steep slopes.

Production and sales

Coca Colla is produced by the private cooperative OSPICOCA, the " Organización Social para la Industrialización de la Coca " (Social Organization for the Industrialization of Coca), which, under its President Víctor Ledezma Fuentes, has around 9,000 members. From January to April 2010, 30,000 bottles were initially only delivered in the vicinity of the manufacturing plant in the city of Santa Cruz . In the second week of April 2010, the first nationwide delivery of a further 12,000 bottles took place in the major cities of La Paz and Cochabamba . Since July 2010 the daily production in Santa Cruz is 24,000 bottles, by the end of the year it is to be increased to 36,000 bottles daily.

Although the production is carried out by a non-governmental producer association, it is supported by the official Bolivian government policy. "This is a very welcome initiative because it is linked to the industrialization and marketing of the coca leaf," said Bolivian Minister for Rural Development, Víctor Hugo Vásquez. The Bolivian President Evo Morales has promised to expand the legal coca acreage by law to 20,000 hectares if the diversification efforts to use the coca plant are successful.

Foreign interest in the Bolivian drink has been expressed primarily by Venezuela and Paraguay , and according to Víctor Ledezma also from Iran .

"CocaLife Ltda.", Registered since September 1st, 2010 stopped the production of the "Coca Colla Bol Energy" for the time being due to insufficient demand in 2013, but hopes to be able to resume sales with a changed recipe.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Latin America specialist from April 27, 2010 ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.lateinamerikaspezialist.de
  2. ↑ Brazil Magazine July 17, 2010
  3. ↑ ABC.es of April 29, 2010
  4. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: El Periódico from April 19, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.elperiodico.com
  5. ↑ BBC News, April 21, 2010
  6. ↑ Consumers turn Their noses up at Bolivia's coca-based food range in: The Telegraph, May 9, 2013 ( english ) accessed February 17, 2015

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