According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 690 tons of opium was estimated to have been produced in Myanmar in 2011 to 2012. Despite government actions destroying almost 24,000 hectares of poppy fields during the 2012 harvest season, the amount of poppy cultivation in the country increased by 17 percent.
Myanmar supplies 10 percent of the world’s opium, second to Afghanistan.
Farmers growing poppies in Myanmar are able to earn 19 times more money for every hectare than they would growing rice, according to the UNODC.
Source: Paul Carsten, “Myanmar opium output rises despite eradication effort,” Reuters, October 31, 2012.
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