Vienna, 16 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have become the main import hubs for cocaine in Western Europe, according to a United Nations report from Thursday.

"Ports on the North Sea like Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Hamburg ... have eclipsed traditional entry points in Spain and Portugal for cocaine arriving in Western Europe," the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in Vienna.

In its report on the global cocaine market, the UN agency expressed concern that the cultivation of the coca plant used to make cocaine skyrocketed by 35% after a lag due to the pandemic last year.

The area for cultivation in South America reportedly grew to more than 300,000 hectares.

The UNODC also reported that the increase in production was partly down to advances in the chemical processing of the coca plant.

In many regions of the world, demand for the drug has also increased over the past decade, the report said.

The UNODC believes the North Sea route may have contributed to the greater distribution of cocaine in Europe. This is because about 10 years ago, smugglers of Albanian origin began buying the product directly in South America and shipping it to Belgium and the Netherlands.

According to the report, authorities seized 89.5 tons of cocaine in Antwerp in 2021 and 70.6 tonnes in Rotterdam.

While drug seizures increased only slightly in these two cities in 2021, they increased sharply in the German cities of Hamburg and Bremen, according to the report.

Albanian groups supplied the British cocaine market from ports in the Netherlands and Germany, it said.

According to customs officers in Hamburg, a record amount of 19 tons of cocaine was seized in 2021. In 2022, this figure in Hamburg dropped to six tons, according to preliminary data.