Opium cultivation in Myanmar has surged to a decade-high record, driven by the nation’s ongoing civil conflict and a crackdown on drugs in Afghanistan, establishing the country as the world’s leading opium producer and signaling new heroin flows to Western markets.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) disclosed this dire assessment in its annual opium survey. The report details over 132,500 acres now under opium poppy cultivation across Myanmar, the largest expanse recorded since 2015.
This rapid expansion follows the Taliban’s effective ban on opium cultivation in Afghanistan in 2022. That move shifted the global supply chain, positioning war-torn Myanmar as the primary source.
Analysts indicate that these illegal activities are a crucial funding source for the ongoing civil war. The conflict significantly escalated after the military coup in 2021.
The UNODC report identified “clear signs” that heroin smuggled from Southeast Asia is now reaching markets “not normally supplied by this region.”
This trend is supported by recent seizures, including 60 kilograms of suspected Myanmar-origin heroin. This amount was intercepted from airline passengers traveling from Thailand to the European Union.
While the current volume of these new smuggling routes “is not yet significant,” the UN agency cautioned that a “changing environment may stimulate more opium cultivation and production in Myanmar.”
Myanmar has historically been a significant opium producer. However, observers contend that the current civil conflict has severely invigorated its black market economy.
This escalation is largely attributed to a weakened central government, industrial infrastructure damaged by fighting, and rapidly increasing poverty across the country.
The UNODC report notes that while insecurity drives farmers to cultivate opium, “intensified conflict and unsafe conditions also make managing cultivation areas more difficult.”
Despite a 17% expansion in the cultivated area from the previous year’s figures, the overall opium yield remained stable at approximately 1,000 tons.