Myanmar emerges as top global supplier of opium, surpasses Afghanistan

Myanmar, already wracked by a brutal civil war, has now also regained the unenviable title of the world’s biggest opium producer, according to a U.N. agency report released on Tuesday.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, says in its “Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023” that Myanmar’s output has now topped Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban imposed a ban on its production.

The new UNODC report says there was an 18% increase from 2022 to 2023 to 47,100 hectares (116,400 acres) of land under cultivation with the illicit crop. The average price paid to farmers has risen by 27% to about $335 per kilo, showing how attractive it is as a crop.

The worth of the entire opiate economy is estimated at up to $2.5 billion, or 2-4% of GDP, in 2022.

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The violent political turmoil in Myanmar has contributed to the opium production increase.

“We all know that what happens in the country since the military takeover in February 2021, and ongoing conflict, governance challenges, worsening economic situations that all have contributed to the increases in opium poppy cultivation and engagement in farming of opium by farmers,” said UNODC Program Officer Inshik Sim at a news conference in Bangkok.

UNODC said last month that the Taliban’s ban led to a 95% drop in cultivation of opium poppies. Opium, the base from which morphine and heroin are produced, is harvested from poppy flowers. The ban has likely driven a global price rise that is incentivizing farmers in Myanmar to fill the gap.

The cultivation is also showing clear signs of growing organization, the report notes, including irrigation and possible use of fertilizers.

“We can see that increasing sophisticated farming practice in Myanmar in the last few years resulting in the record opium yield per hectare – 22.9 kilograms – which again is a 65% increase compared to just two years ago,” Sim said.

Increased armed conflict in Shan State in the northeast, a traditional growing region with the past year’s greatest growth rate of 20%, and in other border areas is expected to accelerate this trend. An offensive launched in late October by an alliance of three ethnic armed groups against Myanmar's military government has further destabilized the remote region.

“It is very, very likely that Myanmar will continue on the upward trend,” said UNODC Regional Representative, Jeremy Douglas. “We have project staff in Taunggyi and in Kachin, in Myitkyina, and they are telling us of fields already, so we know there is going to be more and more to come in Myanmar.”

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