Myanmar opium cultivation surging under military rule - UN report
Myanmar opium cultivation surging under military rule - UN report
(Reuters) - Opium cultivation in military-ruled Myanmar jumped 33% last year, reversing a six-year downward trend in the strife-torn country, a United Nations report said on Thursday.
The growth was "directly connected" to the political and economic turmoil in Myanmar since the military took power in a coup nearly two years ago, an official at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
"Economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas... have had little option but to move back to opium," said Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC's regional representative.
A junta spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Myanmar's economy has declined since the coup, with the kyat currency plummeting against the dollar and food and fuel prices spiralling upwards.
"Without alternatives and economic stability it is likely that opium cultivation and production will continue to expand," warned UNODC Myanmar country manager Benedikt Hofmann.
The cultivated area in 2022 expanded by a third to 40,100 hectares (99,000 acres), while the average estimated yield rose 41% to nearly 20 kg (44 lb) per hectare, the highest value since the UNODC started keeping records in 2002, the report said.
The eastern Shan State, which borders China, Thailand and Laos, saw the biggest increase in cultivation, at 39%.
The 2021 report primarily used satellite data to determine cultivated area.
The value of opium produced annually in Myanmar can reach up to $2 billion, with much of the drug smuggled out to neighbouring countries and on to the global market, the report added.
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Gerry Doyle)
Articles-Popular
- Main
- Contact Us
- Planetary Existences-2
- Planetary Existences
- TWO REVELATIONS-2
- The Two Revelations
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 9
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 8
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 10
- Universality of Initiation
- The Participants In The Mysteries-2
- The Path Of Initiation
- Initiation and the Devas
- Discipleship - Group Relations - 2
- Impeachment Investigators Subpoena White House - Ukraine
- The Fourth Way - Study of Oneself - P.D.Ouspensky
- The Probationary Path - 2
- The Final Initiation
- The Succeeding Two Initiations
- The Participants In The Mysteries
- Discipleship - Group Relationships
- Discipleship
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 7
- The Fourth Way - Wrong Functions - P.D Ouspensky
- Statues are a mark of honour. Like Edward Colston, Cecil Rhodes and Oliver Cromwell have to go
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 6
Articles - Latest
- Ofcom launches investigation into David Lammy’s LBC radio show
- NATO needs to take punitive measures against Erdogan, here's why
- Iran launches massive drone attack on Israel
- Brexit has made the UK a lower-status nation, says David Miliband
- ‘Hungarians rise’: Tens of thousands protest against Orban in Budapest
- Though Rwanda has come a long way since the 1994 genocide, scars of the past still haunt the nation
- Who is Mohamed Mansour? Knighted billionaire who gave Tories £5m
- South Africa’s parliament speaker resigns over accusations of bribery
- A Russian journalist who covered Navalny's trials is jailed in Moscow on charges of extremism
- Senegal top court confirms Bassirou Diomaye Faye's election victory
- Remembering Russia's sudden withdrawal from a key nuclear arms agreement
- Myanmar junta chief calls for unity, says military holding power 'temporarily'
- Khan pledges 1,300 more police officers, PCSOs and special constables on streets
- Russia's oil shipments to North Korea breach UN sanctions, expose rising authoritarian ties
- China's Xi tells Dutch PM cutting supply chains would lead to confrontation