Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world’s biggest opium producer: UN

This photo taken on February 3, 2019 shows a farmer working at an illegal poppy field in Hopong, Myanmar Shan State.//AFP

Myanmar became the world’s biggest producer of opium in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government’s crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday.

Myanmar produced an estimated 1,080 metric tonnes of opium — essential for producing heroin — this year, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The figures come after opium production in Afghanistan slumped an estimated 95 percent to around 330 tonnes following the Taliban’s ban on poppy cultivation in April last year, according to UNODC.

The “Golden Triangle” border region between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand has long been a hotbed of illegal drug production and trafficking, particularly of…