 "World is giving up on opium but Myanmar is not, and that is a problem")
Myanmar’s opium production has slightly dropped for the first time since the military’s takeover in 2021 but the country remains the top producer of the illicit drug, a UN report shows.
Armed rebels have long been harvesting poppies in the interiors of Myanmar which they eventually turn into heroin as law agencies turn a blind eye to its large-scale production.
Last year Myanmar became the world’s biggest producer of opium, harvesting 1,080 tons of the narcotic – more than double that of previous leader Afghanistan after the Taliban government cracked down on poppy cultivation.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in a report said that Myanmar grew a whopping 995 tons of opium in 2024. The production saw a marginal slump this year but the country continues to be the top producer of the narcotic in the world.
Why was there a drop this year?
There was a “strong correlation” between the reduced harvest and escalating conflict in traditional poppy-farming regions, research officer Inshik Sim told a news conference in Bangkok.
Opium production dropped by 4 per cent from 47,100 to 45,200 hectares in 2024.
The state of Shan which lies in the east accounts for about 80 per cent of poppy production in Myanmar. However, the region has been witnessing fighting this year, which the Myanmar Opium Survey 2024 says has pushed many poppy farmers to abandon their fields.
Limitations on movement to remote areas and an extreme monsoon season were cited as other possible factors for the decrease.
The report also found that oversupply in the regional heroin market and shifts in the drug’s global supply chain may have reduced demand for opiate exports and led to price drops.
Impact Shorts
View AllMyanmar leads in opium production
The decrease has not yielded any effect on the country being one of the largest producers of the drug after Afghanistan banned it in 2023.
“The amount of opium produced in Myanmar remains close to the highest levels we have seen since we first measured it more than 20 years ago,” UNODC Regional Representative Masood Karimipour said.
He added, “As conflict dynamics in the country remain intense and the global supply chains adjust to the ban in Afghanistan, we see significant risk of a further expansion over the coming years.”
With inputs from agencies
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