Under Junta Rule, Myanmar Opium Output Soared 33%

The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, a United Nations (UN) report confirmed, David Rising reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region.

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% 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 $660 million and $2 billion, depending on how much was sold locally, and how much of the raw opium was processed into heroin or other drugs.

Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region, Douglas said.

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