Opium production in Myanmar surges

IOL Reporter|Published 2 years ago

FILE: A soldier holds a lanced poppy bulb to show how to extract the sap, which is used to make opium, during a military operation to destroy a poppy field in the municipality of Coyuca de Catalan, Mexico April 18, 2017. Picture: Henry Romero Reuters

A UN report says the increase is linked to a military coup nearly two years ago.

BY JORDI BOU

The production of opium increased sharply in Myanmar, rising to a nine-year high due to the political and economic turmoil since the military took power in a coup nearly two years ago, the UN says.

Production reached nearly 795 tonnes in 2022, nearly double the production in 2021 – 423 tonnes – the year of the military coup.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) believes the growth is “directly connected” to the political and economic turmoil in Myanmar since the military took power in a coup nearly two years ago.

Graphic shows increase in opium production and yields in Myanmar from 2002 to 2023.

The cultivated area in 2022 expanded by a third to 40,100 hectares, while the average estimated yield rose 41% to nearly 20kg per hectare, the highest value since the UNODC started keeping records in 2002, the report said.

Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium, after Afghanistan. The two countries are the source of most of the heroin sold around the world.

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