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Bolivia banks on 'Coca Colla,' fizzy coca-leaf drink
President Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader known for chewing coca leaves at UN meetings, is making a fresh push for the plant, this time in the form of the soft drink "Coca Colla."
Intended to rival its more famous US cousin, Coca Cola, the fizzy drink is at the center of a plan coca growers from the Morales stronghold of Chapare in central Bolivia submitted to the government last week to boost coca production.
Farmers proposed the name Coca Colla in reference to people living in the Andean part of the country.
A Vice Ministry of Coca and Integral Development official who requested anonymity said the project would be launched in about four months and that the initiative could be either run by the state or a joint partnership with coca growers.