Current:Home > MyWar-wracked Myanmar is now the world’s top opium producer, surpassing Afghanistan, says UN agency-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
War-wracked Myanmar is now the world’s top opium producer, surpassing Afghanistan, says UN agency
View Date:2024-12-23 11:49:41
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar, already wracked by a brutal civil war, has regained the unenviable title of the world’s biggest opium producer, according to a U.N. agency report released Tuesday.
The Southeast Asian country’s opium output has topped that of Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban imposed a ban on its production, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its “Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023.”
The Taliban’s ban has led to a 95% drop in the cultivation of opium poppies, UNODC said last month. Opium, the base from which morphine and heroin are produced, is harvested from poppy flowers.
From 2022 to 2023, Myanmar saw the estimated amount of land used to grow the illicit crop increase 18% to 47,100 hectares (116,400 acres), the new UNODC report said.
“Although the area under cultivation has not returned to historic peaks of nearly 58,000 ha (143,300 acres) cultivated in 2013, after three consecutive years of increases, poppy cultivation in Myanmar is expanding and becoming more productive,” it said.
It also noted that the estimated opium yield expanded by 16% to 22.9 kilograms per hectare (20.43 pounds per acre) — topping the previous record set in 2022. It attributes that increase to “increasingly sophisticated means of cultivation, including increased plot density, improved organization of plants, and enhanced practices, such as the use of irrigation systems and potentially fertilizers.”
The violent political turmoil in Myanmar has contributed to the opium production increase.
“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.
The report notes that “opium poppy cultivation in Southeast Asia is closely linked to poverty, lack of government services, challenging macroeconomic environments, instability, and insecurity.”
For farmers, the bottom line is simple economics.
UNODC said the average price paid to opium growers increased by 27% to about $355 per kilogram ($161 per pound), demonstrating the attractiveness of opium as a crop and commodity and strong demand.
The figures mean farmers earned around 75% more than in the previous year, said the U.N. agency.
Douglas said that armed conflict in Shan state in Myanmar’s northeast, a traditional growing region, and in other border areas “is expected to accelerate this trend.” An offensive launched in late October by an alliance of three ethnic armed groups against Myanmar’s military government has further destabilized the remote region.
Northeastern Myanmar is part of the infamous “Golden Triangle,” where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet. The production of opium and heroin historically flourished there, largely because of the lawlessness in border areas where Myanmar’s central government has been able to exercise only minimum control over various ethnic minority militias, some of them partners in the drug trade.
In recent decades, as the region’s opium production dropped, methamphetamine in the form of tablets and crystal meth has supplanted it. It’s easier to make on an industrial scale than the labor-intensive cultivation of opium, and gets distributed by land, sea and air around Asia and the Pacific.
UNODC said in a statement accompanying its report that the region’s burgeoning drug production “feeds into a growing illicit economy ... which brings together continued high levels of synthetic drug production and a convergence of drug trafficking, money laundering and online criminal activities including casinos and scam operations.”
Cyberscam operations, particularly in Myanmar’s border areas, have come under the spotlight for employing tens of thousands of people, many lured by false offers of legitimate employment and then forced to work in conditions of near slavery.
The recent fighting in Shan state is linked to efforts to eradicate the criminal networks running the scam operations and other illegal enterprises.
veryGood! (7773)
Related
- Noem’s Cabinet appointment will make a plain-spoken rancher South Dakota’s new governor
- Jennifer Lopez's Jaw-Dropping Look at the Wicked Premiere Will Get You Dancing Through Life
- 'Like herding cats': Llamas on the loose in Utah were last seen roaming train tracks
- Historic winter storm buries New Mexico, Colorado in snow. Warmer temps ahead
- Miami Marlins hiring Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough as manager
- Kevin Costner's dark 'Yellowstone' fate turns Beth Dutton into 'a hurricane'
- Gunman who wounded a man before fleeing into the subway is arrested, New York City police say
- Arizona regulators fine natural gas utility $2 million over defective piping
- Isiah Pacheco injury updates: When will Chiefs RB return?
- Taylor Swift's ‘Eras Tour’ concert film snubbed in 2025 Grammy Award nominations
Ranking
- NFL Week 10 injury report: Live updates on active, inactive players for Sunday's games
- Americans are feeling effects of friendflation, or when friendships are too costly to keep
- Nicole Scherzinger Apologizes for Hurt Caused by Controversial Instagram Comment
- Trump made gains in heavily Hispanic areas all over the map. Here’s how he did it
- Trading wands for whisks, new Harry Potter cooking show brings mess and magic
- Years of shortchanging elections led to Honolulu’s long voter lines
- See Michelle Yeoh Debut Blonde Bob at the Wicked's L.A. Premiere
- California Gov. Newsom fined over delays in reporting charitable donations
Recommendation
-
Can't afford a home? Why becoming a landlord might be the best way to 'house hack.'
-
'My husband was dying right in front of me': Groom suffers brain injury in honeymoon fall
-
Michigan jury awards millions to a woman fired after refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine
-
Buccaneers donate $10K to family of teen fan killed in crash on way to 'MNF' game
-
How Jersey Shore's Sammi Sweetheart Giancola's Fiancé Justin May Supports Her on IVF Journey
-
National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day 2024 is Saturday: Check out these deals and freebies
-
Hockey Hall of Fame inductions: Who's going in, how to watch
-
Officer responding to domestic disturbance fires weapon; woman and child are dead in Missouri suburb