Cultivation and production of Afghan opium in decline

KABUL — The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Afghan Opium Survey 2009 noted a decrease in the cultivation and production of the drug.

The amount of opium poppy cultivation has decreased by 22 percent, opium production by ten percent and prices have fallen to a ten-year low. The number of provinces with no opium harvests increased from 18 to 20. Due to determined anti-narcotic operations of the Afghan Army and NATO, the volume of narcotics confiscated has also risen. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa noted that these results are proof that progress to counter drug cultivation and trade is possible in Afganistan.

Land appropriated for opium poppy cultivation reached a record level of 193,000 hectares in 2007, but decreased to 123,000 hectares this year, most notably in Gilmend Province where levels of cultivation decreased from 103,600 hectares in 2008 to 69,800 hectares this year. These radical changes in one of Afghanistan’s most unstable provinces is the result of a determined policy of the governor to develop favorable conditions for raising and selling legal agricultural crops and products.

Furthermore, a significant amount of Afghan opium does not reach the international market due to interdiction efforts by neighbouring countries. The UNDOC estimates that Afghan reserves of opium are currently more than 10,000 tonnes, or double the annual global demand for opiates.

Consequently,wholesale prices of the drug in Afghanistan fell by a third, from US$70 to $48 for a kilogram of fresh opium and from $95 to $64 for a kilogram of dried opium.

In the first half of 2009, more than 90 tonnes of chemical substances and their precursors, 450 tonnes of seeds, 50 tonnes of opium, 7 tonnes of morphine, 1.5 tonnes of heroin, 19 tonnes of hashish and 27 heroin-producing laboratories were destroyed, the UNDOC report stated.

source: www.centralasiaonline.com