The Peruvian government has announced that it will buy up all stocks of coca leaf - the main ingredient in cocaine - in a bid to fight drug trafficking.

"It is imperative to buy coca leaves for at least a year from those already registered and those who will be included in the newly created register," Peru's cabinet chief Aníbal Torres said on Wednesday.

According to the UN, Peru is one of the three largest cocaine producers in the world, along with neighboring countries Colombia and Bolivia.

The country currently produces an estimated 160,000 tons of coca leaves per year over an area of ​​62,000 hectares.

Most of it, about 95 percent, is cultivated illegally and sold to drug dealers, who turn it into about 400 tons of cocaine annually.

All legally grown coca has to be sold to the state company Enaco, but that's only 2,500 tons a year.

The coca leaves purchased from Enaco are used to make candy, herbal teas, flour, and chewed like chewing gum.

Chewing coca leaves is a tradition in the Andes and helps against tiredness.

Attempt at government control of cultivation

The legal coca producers are recorded in a register that includes 95,000 producers.

However, the government wants to create a new register for the remaining 400,000 unregistered producers.

The plan also envisages the demilitarization of Peru's main coca-growing region in the south and center of the country.

Former Interior Minister Rubén Vargas criticized the government's decision to the AFP news agency.

"The message is 'seed coca' and that's very dangerous because it's a commodity used by drug dealers." .

Destruction of illegal crops

Peru created the register of coca producers in 1978 as part of a government strategy to combat drug trafficking.

Part of this strategy is also the destruction of illegal crops.

In mid-April, the authorities began burning the 16.3 tons of drugs that had already been seized this year.

It takes weeks until all drugs and precursors are destroyed.