Myanmar opium cultivation has surged 33 per cent since coup, UN report says

Economic disruption followed the military takeover in 2021, leaving many farmers in remote border states little option but to return to growing opium, UN says

Virtually all heroin in East and Southeast Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar – it remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world

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A member of Pat Jasan, a grassroots organisation motivated by faith to root out the destructive influence of drugs, holds a bunch of poppies. Photo: AP

Published: 9:02pm, 26 Jan 2023Updated: 9:39pm, 26 Jan 2023

The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by one-third in the past year, as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people towards the drug trade, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday.

In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33 per cent increase in cultivation area to 40,100 hectares (99,090 acres), according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

“Economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas in northern Shan and border states have had little option but to move back to opium,” said the UN office’s regional representative Jeremy Douglas.

The overall value of the Myanmar opiate economy, based on UN estimates, ranges between US$660 million and US$2 billion, 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 Southeast Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan,” Douglas said.

“There is no comparing the two at this point as Afghanistan still produces far more, but the expansion under way in Myanmar should not be dismissed and needs attention as it is likely to continue – it is directly tied to the security and economic situation we see unfolding today”.

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The so-called Golden Triangle area, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, has historically been a major production area for opium and hosted many of the labs that converted it to heroin. Decades of political instability have made the frontier regions of Myanmar, also known as Burma, largely lawless, to be exploited by drug producers and traffickers.