Military Coup Causes Opium Farmers, Myanmar Is Now The Biggest Supplier In The World To Replace Afghanistan

Illustration of opium plants. (Wikimedia Commons/davric)

JAKARTA - The military coup in 2021 will also influence Myanmar so that it can become the largest producer of opium in the world to replace Afghanistan.

In a report Tuesday the UN agency said it was due to Myanmar's domestic instability, as well as a decline in cultivation in Afghanistan.

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the decline in opium cultivation by 95 percent in Afghanistan after the Taliban's ban on drugs by 2022, had caused global supplies to turn to Myanmar, where political, social and economic instabilities caused by the 2021 coup prompted many people to farm opium.

Myanmar's farmers are now earning about 75 percent more income from poppy opium farming, as the average price of opium flowers has reached around US$355 per kilogram, the UNODC said.

In addition, the opium cultivation area has increased by 18 percent year over year, from the original 40,100 to 47,000 hectares, thus increasing the potential for the highest harvest since 2001, the agency continued.

"Economic, security and government disturbances that occurred after the military takeover in February 2021 continue to encourage farmers in remote areas to seek opium to make a living," said UNODC Regional Representative Jeremy Douglas.

The UNODC report further states that the most outer-growing opium cultivation area of the northern Shan State, which is also the border area of Myanmar, was followed by Chin and Kachin states. The harvest has also increased by 16 percent to 22.9 kilograms per hectare, due to more sophisticated agricultural practices.

Douglas said the escalating fighting between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed minority groups would most likely accelerate the expansion of opium planting.

Separately, Myanmar's military junta did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

It is known, the expansion of opium cultivation has an impact on the growth of the dark economy in Myanmar which includes high production and trade in synthetic drugs, as well as other criminal companies ranging from money laundering to online fraud centers run by organized crime.