| | |  Americas & Beyond | September 2009 
Afghan Opium Prices Drop to Eight-Year Low, Cartels Grow
 Jonathan Tirone - Bloomberg News
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September 03, 2009
| | An opium-poppy farmer looks over his field in Baqwa, Afghanistan. (Getty Images) | |
Afghan farmers, who produce more than 90 percent of the opium used to make the world's heroin, slashed poppy cultivation by a fifth after prices plunged to 2001 levels while narco-cartels increased their strength and influence in the country, a United Nations study shows.
Opium-poppy cultivation fell 22 percent to 123,000 hectares (303,810 acres) as average farm-gate prices for dry opium dropped 34 percent to $64 a kilogram (2.2 pounds), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report. The 2009 harvest yielded up to 6,900 metric tons (7,605 tons), enough to make about 1,000 metric tons of heroin, the Vienna-based UNODC said.
"Lower opium prices in Afghanistan reflect the continuing high levels of opium production, which is thought to exceed global demand for opium and its derivatives," according to the 42-page report issued today. "Annual world demand for illicit opium has never exceeded 5,000 tons."
While production has fallen for three straight years, the 2009 opium harvest is still Afghanistan's third-biggest since the UN started tracking production 16 years ago. Afghan growers, who made about $438 million from opium this year, boosted yield through improved farming methods and favorable weather. Prices haven't fallen as low since the Taliban regime fell in 2001.
The UN said a "ticking bomb" of more than 10,000 tons of opium existed in hidden stockpiles and urged intelligence agencies to find and destroy the drugs. Stored opium is possibly being used in lieu of cash to fund insurgents' arms purchases and terrorism, according to the UN.
"Marriage of Convenience"
"A marriage of convenience between insurgents and criminal groups is spawning narco-cartels in Afghanistan," UNODC Executive Director Antonia Maria Costa said. "After years of collusion with criminal gangs and corrupt officials, some insurgents are now opportunistically moving up the value chain."
Cooperation between the cartels and corrupt Afghan officials may destabilize the central Asian country's government, the report said. Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election prompted more than 550 allegations of fraud, according to an Associated Press report citing unidentified officials.
An eradication effort by Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led coalition soldiers, which has destroyed less than 4 percent of planted opium since 2008, "continues to be a failure," the UN said. The U.S. has opted to stop opium eradication and concentrate on funding agricultural development, special envoy Richard Holbrooke said July 30.
Afghanistan's 1.6 million opium farmers earn in excess of three times more money per hectare for poppies than for wheat.
"In post-election Afghanistan, the rural development push must be as robust as the current military offensive," Maria Costa said. The aim should be "to feed and employ farmers, not just to search and destroy their drugs."
There are 100,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. The U.S., with the largest military presence, is scheduled to increase its contingent to 68,000 from 62,000 by December. The coalition deposed the Taliban in 2001 and has since been fighting an insurgency. |
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