Afghan opium cultivation bounces and shifts 2 years after ban, UN says

VIENNA — 

Opium poppy accumulation successful Afghanistan, agelong the world's ascendant supplier of the earthy worldly for heroin, has risen by a 5th successful the 2nd afloat twelvemonth since the Taliban banned it but remains a fraction of pre-ban levels, a U.N. study said connected Wednesday.

The Taliban's ultimate spiritual person banned the cultivation of narcotics successful April 2022. That prompted opium farming successful the state to plummet an estimated 95% successful 2023, according to an yearly survey by the United Nations Office connected Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

This year, cultivation accrued an estimated 19% to 12,800 hectares and the halfway of accumulation shifted from its accepted heartland, the country's southwest, to the northeast, according to the latest UNODC study published Tuesday.

"Despite the summation successful 2024, opium poppy cultivation remains acold beneath 2022, erstwhile an estimated 232,000 hectares were cultivated," the UNODC said successful a statement.

Dry opium prices stabilized astir $730 a kilogram successful the archetypal fractional of this year, acold supra the pre-ban mean of $100, the study said. Last year's study said that successful August 2023 those farm-gate prices had reached a "20-year peak" of $408.

In Afghanistan's southwestern region, which borders Pakistan and accounted for astir fractional the country's accumulation successful 2023, cultivation collapsed 65% this year, the study said. Of that region's poppy-farming provinces, the lone objection was Helmand, which saw a 434% summation but from a debased base.

In the northeastern region, which borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, cultivation surged 381% this twelvemonth to 7,563 hectares, 4 times the country cultivated successful the southwest, the second-biggest producer, the study said.

Almost each the northeast's accumulation was successful 1 province, Badakhshan, a mountainous country that includes a agelong of the Hindu Kush and Afghanistan's comparatively abbreviated borderline with China.

"The precocious prices and dwindling opium stocks whitethorn promote farmers to flout the ban, peculiarly successful areas extracurricular of accepted cultivation centers, including neighboring countries," the UNODC said.