Through the creation of a new public company called Kokabol, the government of Bolivia will start producing toothpaste and other industrialized products derived from coca leaf and medicinal plants.
The Ministry of Productive Development and Plural Economy said the Industrialization of the Bolivian Coca Leaf under the brand Kokabol involves a US$ 9 million investment. The main plant will be located in the municipality of Sacaba, in the department of Cochabamba.
Kokabol will produce nutraceutical and stimulant infusions and capsules; soft phytopharmaceuticals: toothpaste, ointments, analgesics healing agents and creams; liquid phytopharmaceuticals like syrups; and solid phytopharmaceuticals like pills for therapeutic use. The company will also carry out research and productive technological development of coca leaf and medicinal plants.
Coca use has been a topic of public debate in Bolivia, with politicians discussing it as a key element in international crime while also defending the use of the plant as an indigenous cultural heritage that has medical purposes. In 2017 a Coca Leaf Law came into force to regulate the “revaluation, production, circulation, transport, commercialization, consumption, research, industrialization and promotion of coca in its natural state.”
