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UN: Afghan opium production to rise 61%
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UN: Afghan opium production to rise 61%
Opium production in Afghanistan, which fuels the Taliban insurgency, is set to rise by nearly two-thirds as prices soar after last year's harvest was blighted by disease, the United Nations said Tuesday.
According to Kayhan International daily, ten years after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to drive the Taliban from power, Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's illegal opium, funding much of the militia's insurgency.
The UN said that cultivation of the poppy crop reached 131,000 hectares in 2011, seven percent higher than in 2010 "due to insecurity and high prices", said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its annual opium survey.
And with the crop yield per hectare up markedly from last year, overall production would potentially rise by 61% on last year, the report said.
The increased amount of land under opium production indicates a major failure on the part of NATO's civilian partners -- notably provincial reconstruction teams -- to convince farmers to switch to alternative crops.
The price of dry opium rose 43% this year compared to 2010 and total farm-gate income is set to increase by 133% to reach $1.4 billion in 2011, or nine percent of Afghanistan's GDP, the report said.
"If the profits of manufacturing and trafficking heroin are added to this figure, opium is a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption," it said.
"We cannot afford to ignore the record profits for non-farmers, such as traders and insurgents, which in turn fuel corruption, criminality and instability," said UNODC country head Jean-Luc Lemahieu.
"This is a distressing situation."
About 78% of cultivation was concentrated in southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban-led insurgency and where the United States has concentrated a troop "surge" designed to beat back the militia's influence.
Another 17% was produced in the lawless and remote southwest, which include the most insecure provinces in the country, the report said.
"This confirms the link between insecurity and opium cultivation observed since 2007," it said.
Lemahieu said that on average the drugs trade made a $2 billion profit in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2010, turning into a $66 billion profit abroad.
Within the $2 billion in Afghanistan, he said 10% went to insurgents and about 20% to farmers.
He said a question mark hung over the remaining $1.4 billion, believing most of it was devoured by corruption and criminality. But last year, prices rose more than 300%.
"Today the farmers are making $1.4 billion... potentially the insurgency this year will make $700 million, and I let you calculate how much will go to corruption within this country," Lemahieu said.
Afghan authorities have been trying to rid the country of illicit opium production since the Taliban were ousted from power in a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
"The total amount of hectares eradicated increased by 65% in 2011. However, the area eradicated represents only three percent of the total cultivation area," Lemahieu quoted UNODC chief Yury Fedotov as saying.
"While there has been progress in some counter-narcotics areas, the medium term indicators for opium production are not positive," he added.
Experts say the Taliban's involvement in the drugs trade stretches from direct facilitation -- such as providing farmers with seed, fertilizer and cash advances on their crop -- to distribution and protection.
On Tuesday, commander of the anti-narcotics squad of the Iranian police General Ali Moayyedi called the Islamic Republic a flag-bearer in the fight against narcotics, and reiterated his forces' resolve to continue their countrywide campaign against illicit drugs.
"We have proved in three decades that we will not retreat from the war on narcotics," Moayyedi told reporters.
He further noted the large volume of drug seizures in Iran, saying police forces have seized 250 tons of narcotics during the past six months, reminding that the figure shows an eight percent increase compared with the same period last year.
He added that the police have disbanded 1,090 drug rings during the same period, which shows a 2% growth.
Moayyedi also said that seizure of synthetic drugs in Iran has witnessed a 140% increase in the said period.
Synthetic drugs have recently been smuggled and distributed in Iran by drug-traffickers who seek to change addiction behaviors in the country and redirect addicts' tendency from conventional drugs, such as opium, heroin and hashish, to those narcotics mostly prevalent in the West, like cocaine, crack, crystal meth and LSD.
Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium producing Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe, but the Islamic Republic has emerged as the leading country fighting drug trafficking after making 89% of the world's total opium seizures.
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