According to Havocscope’s calculations, on the conservative side the illicit market in Burma generates around $470 million dollars a year. The breakdown is as follows:

$350 Million in Illegal Logging. Timber from the Burma’s famed teak forests are cut down and smuggled and sold in China.

$120 Million in Opium Production. The Opium industry is a fast growing segment of the illicit market in Burma. According to the United Nations, opium cultivation is rising compared to previous years.

In 2007, opium cultivation rose by 29% from 21,500 to 27,700 hectares. Production was up 46% as a result of higher yields. These increases are dwarfed by the opium boom in Afghanistan, but they entrench Myanmar’s position as, by far, the world’s second largest opium producer (460 tonnes).

In addition, Precious Stones smuggling: Figures unknown. According to Foreign Policy:

Over 90 percent of the world’s rubies come from the country, and the military regime turns a small profit on the export of gems and jade. Human rights groups say that many of Burma’s ruby mines use forced labor, and the cover of legal gem sales has been used for money laundering of drug profits, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Also, Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria states that the military is able to profit from the activities in the black market.

In addition, as legitimate businesses dry up, black markets spring up, and the thugs and gangs who can handle these new rules flourish. Burmese gems are now traded actively in this manner. Then there are drugs, whose production and supply multiply. In all of this, the military, which controls border crossings, ports and checkpoints, always prospers.

Contrast those numbers with the following paragraph, from the New York Times:

Japan’s foreign minister, Masahiko Komura, said Wednesday that Tokyo was considering cutting back its aid to Myanmar to protest Mr. Nagai’s death and the crackdown, according to the Kyodo news agency. Annual aid to Myanmar from Japan is about $25 million.