Conflict and economic hardship force farmers to rely on opium, with poppy cultivation rising by 33% in 2022
Farmers working in a poppy field in Myanmar’s Shan state. The country’s opium cultivation has risen by 33% in 2022.Farmers working in a poppy field in Myanmar’s Shan state. The country’s opium cultivation has risen by 33% in 2022.Production of opium has flourished insince the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year, according to a UN report.
The overall value of the Myanmar opiate economy, based on UN estimates, ranges between $660m and $2bn, depending on how much was sold locally and how much of the raw opium was processed into heroin or other drugs.“Virtually all the heroin reported in east and south-east Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan,” Douglas said.
Decades of political instability have made the frontier regions of Myanmar largely lawless, to be exploited by drug producers and traffickers. Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region, Douglas said.The cultivation of opium had been trending downward in recent years before the military took control. Production estimates hit a bottom of 400 tonnes in 2020.
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