.Spike in Opium Prices Threatens Progress in Afghan Drug War
A recent surge in opium prices could encourage Afghan farmers to expand cultivation of the narcotic crop and reverse advances in the fight against drug production in the war-torn country, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned today.
The UNODC said a blight that cut poppy production by half in 2010 and continuing military operations in Afghanistan have spawned uncertainty about future cultivation and speculation that there will be shortages, which has led opium prices to soar.
"The market responded to the steep drop in opium production with an equally dramatic jump in the market price to more than double 2009 levels," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said. "If this cash bonanza lasts, it could effectively reverse the hard-won gains of recent years."
Opium prices had steadily declined from 2005 through 2009, as the United States led an international campaign against Afghan's opium production.
But a naturally occurring plant disease that ravaged crops in the major opium-poppy-growing provinces of Helmand and Kandahar has translated into a cash windfall for poppy farmers, the UNODC said.
Last year, dry opium was fetching an average price of $169 per kilogram at harvest time, up from just $64 a kilogram in 2009. That allowed poppy farmers to increase their gross income per acre by more than 36 percent to over $12,000.
And it gave opium-growing households significantly higher income than households that gave up the crop at the urging of the central government in Kabul and the international community, which provided incentives for the farmers to grow other crops instead.
But the UNODC said the dramatic rise in opium prices wasn't repeated in neighboring countries, including Iran and Pakistan, where Afghan traffickers are heavily involved in shipping morphine, heroin and other opiates.
ABC
The UNODC said a blight that cut poppy production by half in 2010 and continuing military operations in Afghanistan have spawned uncertainty about future cultivation and speculation that there will be shortages, which has led opium prices to soar.
"The market responded to the steep drop in opium production with an equally dramatic jump in the market price to more than double 2009 levels," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said. "If this cash bonanza lasts, it could effectively reverse the hard-won gains of recent years."
Opium prices had steadily declined from 2005 through 2009, as the United States led an international campaign against Afghan's opium production.
But a naturally occurring plant disease that ravaged crops in the major opium-poppy-growing provinces of Helmand and Kandahar has translated into a cash windfall for poppy farmers, the UNODC said.
Last year, dry opium was fetching an average price of $169 per kilogram at harvest time, up from just $64 a kilogram in 2009. That allowed poppy farmers to increase their gross income per acre by more than 36 percent to over $12,000.
And it gave opium-growing households significantly higher income than households that gave up the crop at the urging of the central government in Kabul and the international community, which provided incentives for the farmers to grow other crops instead.
But the UNODC said the dramatic rise in opium prices wasn't repeated in neighboring countries, including Iran and Pakistan, where Afghan traffickers are heavily involved in shipping morphine, heroin and other opiates.
ABC
posted by madtom at 12:36 AM
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