Myanmar is now the world’s largest source of opium, UN says

BANGKOK - Myanmar has become the world’s largest source of opium, due to domestic instability and a decline in cultivation in Afghanistan, the United Nations said in a report on Dec 12.

The

95 per cent decline in opium cultivation in Afghanistan

after a drug ban by the Taliban in 2022 has seen global supply shift to Myanmar, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report said.

Political, social and economic instability brought about by a 2021 coup drove many in Myanmar to poppy farming, it added.

Myanmar farmers now earn about 75 per cent more from opium poppy farming, as average prices of the flower have reached about US$355 (S$476) per kilogramme.

The cultivation area has increased by 18 per cent year on year, from 40,100ha to 47,000ha, boosting the potential yield to its highest level since 2001, the UNODC said.

“The economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 continue to drive farmers in remote areas towards opium to make a living,” UNODC regional representative Jeremy Douglas said.

Opium cultivation areas expanded most in Myanmar’s border regions in northern Shan state, followed by Chin and Kachin states, as yield expanded by 16 per cent to 22.9kg per hectare because of more sophisticated farming practices, the UNODC report said.

The surge in fighting

between the Myanmar military and armed ethnic-minority groups will most likely accelerate the expansion of opium cultivation, Mr Douglas said.

The Myanmar junta did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The expansion of opium cultivation feeds into a growing illicit economy in Myanmar that includes high levels of synthetic drug production and trafficking, as well as other criminal enterprises from money laundering to online scam centres run by organised crime. REUTERS