Forget Afghanistan, Myanmar is now the world’s top opium producer, UN says

Myanmar’s legal economy has been gutted by conflict and instability since the military seized power in 2021, driving farmers to grow opium poppies

Opium production in Afghanistan, meanwhile, slumped an estimated 95 per cent this year following the Taliban’s ban on poppy cultivation, the UN says

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A farmer works in an illegal poppy field in Myanmar’s Shan State in 2019. Myanmar is now the world’s biggest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:07pm, 12 Dec 2023

Myanmar became the world’s biggest 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 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.

Afghan farmers in Helmand province harvest poppy in April last year, the month the ruling Taliban announced a total ban on poppy production. Photo: AP

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 US$1 billion and US$2.4 billion – the equivalent of 1.7 to 4.1 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product last year, UNODC said.

Last year, an estimated 790 tonnes of opium were produced in Myanmar, it said.

Myanmar’s legal economy has been gutted by conflict and instability since the military seized power in 2021, driving many farmers to grow opium poppies.