Bangkok, Thailand:
Myanmar became the world's largest producer of opium in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government's crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday.
Myanmar produced an estimated 1,080 tonnes of opium – essential for heroin production – this year, according to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The figures come after opium production in Afghanistan fell by an estimated 95 percent to around 330 tonnes following the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation in April last year, UNODC said.
The “Golden Triangle” border area between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand has long been a hotbed of illicit drug production and trafficking, particularly 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 percent of the country's GDP in 2022, UNODC said.
An estimated 790 tons of opium were produced in Myanmar last year, the report said.
Myanmar's legal economy has faced conflict and instability since the military seized power in 2021, prompting many farmers to take up poppy cultivation.
Poor access to markets and state infrastructure and rampant inflation “appear to have played a significant role in farmers' decisions in late 2022 to grow more opium poppies,” the report said.
Estimated opium production for 2022-2023 was at the highest level in more than two decades, UNODC said.
UNODC also said that poppy cultivation in Myanmar was becoming increasingly sophisticated, with increased investment and better practices – including improved irrigation and possible use of fertilizers – boosting crop yields.
Afghanistan, the world's largest producer for several years, has seen cultivation collapse after Taliban authorities vowed to end illicit drug production.
Poppy cultivation accounted for almost a third of the country's total agricultural production in value last year, but the poppy area shrank from 233,000 hectares at the end of 2022 to 10,800 hectares in 2023.
– Unbridled violence –
In Myanmar, the main agricultural area is Shan State, the northern part of which has been rocked by fighting in recent weeks after an alliance of armed ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the junta and its allies.
Shan accounted for about 88 percent of the 41,300 hectares (102,054 acres) of poppy areas across the country, the UN report said.
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, the report said.
Shan State covers almost a quarter of Myanmar's landmass and is dotted with ravines and jungle-clad hills.
A dizzying array of ethnic armed organizations that can rely on tens of thousands of well-armed fighters control parts of the state, which the UN says is also the main source of methamphetamine in Southeast Asia.
Some run autonomous enclaves granted to them by previous juntas that analysts say are home to casinos, brothels and weapons factories.
The UN said cultivation had also increased in northern Kachin state and Chin state on the border with India.
Analysts say the military, which ousted an elected government and seized power in 2021, is not serious about ending the multibillion-dollar trade.
In a rare admission earlier this year, the head of Myanmar's Central Committee for the Control of Drug Abuse said his efforts to crush the trade were ineffective.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)