Myanmar became the world’s biggest
producer of opium in 2023, surpassing Afghanistan after the Taliban Government’s
crackdown on the trade, stated a United Nations report on Tuesday.
Myanmar produced an estimated 1,080
metric tonnes of opium – essential for producing heroin – this year, according
to the latest report by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The figures come after opium production
in Afghanistan slumped an estimated 95 per cent to around 330 tonnes following
the Taliban’s ban on poppy cultivation in April last year, according to UNODC.
The “Golden Triangle” border region
between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand has long been a hotbed of illegal drug
production and trafficking, particularly of methamphetamine and opium.
The total estimated value of Myanmar’s “opiate
economy” rose to between $1 billion and $2.4 billion – the equivalent of 1.7 to
4.1 per cent of the country’s 2022 GDP, said UNODC.
Last year, an estimated 790 metric
tonnes of opium were produced in Myanmar, it said.
Myanmar’s legal economy has been dealing
with conflict and instability since the military seized power in 2021, driving
many farmers to grow poppy.
Poor access to markets and state
infrastructure as well as rampant inflation “appears to have played a
significant role in farmers’ decisions in late 2022 to cultivate more poppy”, stated
the report.
Estimated opium production for 2022-23
was at its highest level for more than 20 years.
Poppy cultivation in Myanmar was becoming
more sophisticated, with increased investment and better practices – including
improved irrigation and possible use of fertilisers – pushing up crop yields.
Afghanistan, the world’s biggest
producer for some years, has seen cultivation collapse after the Taliban
authorities vowed to end illegal drug production.
Poppy crops accounted for almost a third
of the country’s total agricultural production by value last year, but the area
used for poppy shrank from 233,000 hectares in late 2022 to 10,800 in 2023.
Rampant Violence
In Myanmar, the main cultivating area is
Shan State, the northern part of which has been convulsed by fighting in recent
weeks after an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups launched an offensive
against the junta and its allies.
Shan accounted for about 88 per cent of
the 41,300 hectares (102,054 acres) of opium poppy areas nationwide, said the
UN report.
In eastern Shan, the average estimated
yield of opium per hectare increased from 19.8 kilograms in the 2022 survey to
29.4 kilograms in 2023.
Shan State occupies almost a quarter of
Myanmar’s land mass and is dotted with ravines and jungle-clad hills.
A giddying array of ethnic armed
organisations that can call on tens of thousands of well-armed fighters control
swathes of the State, which the UN says is also Southeast Asia’s primary source
of methamphetamine.
Some administer autonomous enclaves
granted to them by previous juntas, which analysts say are home to casinos,
brothels and weapons factories.
The UN said cultivation had also
increased in northern Kachin State and in Chin State on the border with Bharat.
Analysts say the military, which ousted
an elected government and seized power in 2021, is not serious about ending the
multi-billion dollar trade.
In a rare admission earlier this year,
the head of Myanmar’s Central Committee on Drug Abuse Control said its efforts
to crush the trade were having no impact.
AFP
