KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports a 30% increase in opium production in Afghanistan in 2024 compared to the previous year, with 433 tons produced since January.
In a report on Wednesday, November 27, the UN agency highlighted that the value of Afghanistan’s opium harvest in 2024 is estimated at $260 million, reflecting a 130% increase compared to the previous year.
According to the report, opium production still remains 93% lower, and its value 80% lower, compared to 2022 levels, when the Taliban began enforcing a nationwide drug ban.
“A second year of low opium cultivation and production presents opportunities and complex challenges,” said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC.
“International efforts must be coordinated to ensure that this decline is not replaced with production of dangerous synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine within Afghanistan or the wider region,” she added.
According to the report, geographically, opium cultivation has now shifted from the southwestern provinces to the northeastern provinces, where two-thirds of production was concentrated in 2024.
The report says that in 2024, although farmers cultivated more alternative crops like cereals and cotton, the significantly higher revenue from opium, which is 60 times greater, along with farmers’ economic hardship, encouraged them to return to poppy cultivation.
For almost two decades, Afghanistan was the largest producer and global supplier of heroin, accounting for up to 80% of the global market share. The country’s products reached consumers worldwide through various trafficking routes, including Central Asia, Iran, and Pakistan.
In April 2022, Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree strictly prohibiting the cultivation of poppy, the primary source of opium used in heroin production. “Anyone violating the ban would have their field destroyed and be penalized according to Sharia law,” stated in the decree.
Following the ban, the UNODC reported a significant 95% drop in the supply of opium, from 6,200 tons in 2022 to just 333 tons in 2023.
However, a recent investigative report by KabulNow revealed that despite the ban, farmers in provinces such as Helmand and Badakhshan have resumed cultivating poppy as before, harvesting up to four times a year.
The report also found that drug prices have skyrocketed since the ban, with the price of opium rising from $70/kg before the ban to $1,200/kg now.
Similarly, the price of heroin increased from $340/kg to $6,120/kg, methamphetamine from $120/kg to $510/kg, and hashish from $34/kg to $120/kg.
The Taliban, which funded its decades-long insurgency through drug cultivation and trade, now faces significant challenges in enforcing its leader’s decree and combating the ongoing drug cultivation and trade.
