The humble coca leaf has been used for centuries in Bolivia for teas, cooking and religious ceremonies, but the plant more commonly known around the world as the raw product used to make cocaine.

Bolivian President Evo Morales was himself once a coca farmer, and has called for the United Nations to lift a ban on coca for some purposes.

His government has pushed ahead with plans to create new industries that will use coca leaves to produce legal products.

This new factory being built in El Chapare by the Cochabamba Coca Federation, will produce flour, liquor, wine and toothpaste all made out of coca leaves.

It will be inaugurated this month by President Morales.

Critics fear however that the more coca leaves being produced, will mean more cocaine is being produced.

The United Nations that say cocaine production is growing faster in Bolivia than anywhere else in world.

But one of the officials from the Federation that is overseeing the plant's construction and who is also a member of parliament for Morales' MAS party, questioned those figures.

"According to the United Nations report, there was an increase in coca plantations in Bolivia, but the figures are from the United Nations and we the coca producers don't believe this information," said Asterio Romero, vice president of the Cochabamba Coca Federation.

Coca markets like this one are a common sight in Bolivia.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported in July that coca plant cultivation in Bolivia grew by six percent in 2008.

President Morales stance on the coca trade has the support of producers, who say sometimes coca plants are the only option they have.

"There are some places that are only good for coca growing, especially in elevated areas, you can only produce coca there. So whether it is good or bad, we do what we can to support our families," said one coca producer, Florinda Alvarez.

Cocaine seizures have been on the increase and this year Bolivia police stormed the largest ever cocaine lab found in the country, located in the jungle near the western city of Santa Cruz.

Bolivia is currently the world's third largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru, and the U.N. reported that estimated cocaine production rose nine percent to 113 metric tons in Bolivia last year.

The new, mega-labs that have been busted in recent years are well organised and use chemicals similar to those employed by Colombia producers.

Local analysts believe that over 70 percent of all coca production is funnelled into the cocaine trade.

"Our calculations indicate that of the total quantity of coca leaf production, so some 54,000 tonnes each year, more or less 71 percent is destined to the production of cocaine. That is according to our calculations. Obviously, the calculations of the government are less than that, because the government has a political interest in coca," Central Latin American Scientific Investigation (CELIN in its Spanish initials) Executive Director, Franklin Alcaraz, said.

The reality in impoverished Bolivia, however, is that coca leaves fetch far higher prices than most food crops and any efforts to switch producers are doomed to be met with resistance.