Recession hits Peru anti-drug hopes

1 ANSWERS

1. Amit bang
   

   Coffee and chocolate have really given a lift to Manuel Tuahama's life.
   
   "There was a lot of killing, there were shoot-outs, fights, even at festivals. There was no peace," says the 34-year-old farmer who used to grow coca, the raw material used to make cocaine.
   
   "Nowadays in this part of San Martin we say 'coffee and cocoa yes, coca no'."
   
   The San Martin region in northern Peru used to be best known for drugs and the Shining Path rebels. Its forested hills made ideal guerrilla hideouts and were perfect for growing coca.
   
   In the midst of the terror and insecurity, UN official Jochen Wiese offered peasant farmers the option of leaving coca for coffee with the incentive that if they worked together their product could reach the international marketplace.
   
   That was 24 years ago. Today around 1,200 local families are part of a successful co-operative called Oro Verde, or Green Gold, which grows organic and fair-trade coffee and cocoa.
   
   But now the stability enjoyed by the co-operatives faces a new threat from the global economic downturn.
   
   "Anyway you look at it the crisis will affect our organisation commercially, we have fewer contracts than the year before," says co-operative co-ordinator Teofilo Beingolea.

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