The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed in a report on Tuesday that prices in Afghanistan for opium products “soared” in the past year and 32 percent more territory nationwide has been dedicated to cultivating the narcotic – statistics that reveal a booming industry under Taliban rule.
The 2022 report on opium cultivation in Afghanistan by the UNODC is the first of its kind since the Taliban jihadist organization took over the country in August 2021, 20 years after being ousted in an American invasion. Taliban jihadist leaders have repeatedly vowed to eradicate opium and its heroin and other derivatives – arguably Afghanistan’s most important export – since taking over. In April, Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhunzada issued a decree banning all poppy cultivation in the country, which is used in the production of opium, heroin, fentanyl, and other such drugs. The administration of left-wing President Joe Biden applauded the Taliban terrorists for the decree.
The U.N. report concluded that opium remains a critical part of the Afghan economy and has gained importance as the legal market collapses under terrorist control. It noted that, far from eradicating the industry, the Taliban ban caused an immediate price surge that made the crop more lucrative for farmers.
The annual opium cultivation report documents how much land is being used to grow opium. Farmers begin sowing poppy in late October and early November for the next year but began preparing the land following the Taliban takeover, meaning the study “reflects planting decisions made by farmers before the de-facto authorities announced a ban on all illicit drug cultivation, manufacture and trafficking in April 2022.”
The U.N. documented 233,000 hectares of land nationwide set aside for this purpose in 2022, 32 percent more land than this time in 2021.
The harvest this year “can be converted into 350 – 380 tons of heroin of export quality (50-70% purity).” The U.N. estimated Afghanistan is the origin of 80 percent of opiates sold worldwide.
Furthermore, it documents, “opiates trafficking activity has continued unabated since August 2021, indicating that the global Afghan opiate market has not been disrupted since the Taliban takeover.”
The United Nations reported that products from opium sales tripled between 2021 and 2022, when the Taliban announced the alleged ban. Farmers in Afghanistan reportedly made $1.4 billion selling opium this year.
Those profits are significantly more important than they were before the Taliban takeover in August because that event prompted a collapse of the legal Afghan economy. The Taliban seized power after Biden extended the 20-year Afghan war last year, breaking an agreement with the Taliban to end the American military presence in the country by May 1, 2021. The Taliban announced following Biden’s move that it would not abide by an agreement not to attack U.S. forces or associated with other terrorists and launched a nationwide conquest campaign that ended with the jihadists within Kabul city limits. Former President Ashraf Ghani immediately fled the country upon the Taliban’s arrival, ceding the country. Biden ultimately withdrew forces in late August, leaving behind valuable American military technology that the Taliban has flaunted in parades.
As a result of the Taliban takeover, major financial aid programs to Afghanistan have been frozen. The Taliban terrorists do not have access to World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF) dollars in the name of the Afghan government. The national economy has contracted dramatically, limiting options outside of opium cultivation.
“After August 2021 the licit economy contracted by nearly USD 5 billion, or 21%, compared to 2020. Annual per capita income declined by 14-28%,” the UNODC reported on Tuesday. “The illicit economy, by contrast, has continued to function and gain in significance as the licit economy falters.”
“The 2022 farmers’ income from opium (farm-gate value) amounted to some 29% of the country’s 2021 agricultural output; in 2021 the farm-gate value of opiates was only worth some 9% of the previous year’s agricultural output,” the United Nations observed. “The transformation of the opium into morphine and heroin, together with their trafficking out of Afghanistan, generate considerably higher levels of income compared to the amounts that the farmers earn.”
The only hint of positive news for those who wish to see a contraction of the opium trade is that opium yields this year contracted, but only due to drought.
“Opium yields can vary strongly from one year to the next, depending on amount and timing of precipitation, temperature, the absence or presence of crop diseases or pests, and changing agricultural practices such as the use of fertilisers,” the UNODC explained.
Taliban leaders rejected the findings published on Tuesday, boldly declaring that no drug trafficking whatsoever has occurred in Afghanistan since Taliban jihadists seized power.
“We deny this report,” Taliban Deputy Minister of Counter-Narcotics Haseebullah Ahmadi told Afghanistan’s Tolo News. “The cultivation of poppy and narcotics after the decree of the (leader of the Islamic Emirate) has not happened. There has been no drug dealing since then.”
Tolo News quoted a local farmer from Uruzgan province contradicting the Taliban claim, suggesting that opium has become increasingly popular as prices soar and other options for making money become less available.
“When the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] issued a decree in this regard, the prices increased. 7kg of opium is now sold for 150,000 Afs. This shows a surge between 50 to 60 percent,” the farmer, Abdul Qudos, was quoted as saying. “The prices have increased now. The prices of opium were low previously. The prices have surged and thus the people are interested in cultivating poppy.”
One of the Taliban’s first promises in power was to end the opium trade in the country.
“From now on, Afghanistan will be a narcotics-free country,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said during his first press conference following Ghani’s flight from the country.
“We are assuring our countrymen and women and the international community that Afghanistan will not produce any kind of narcotics,” he repeated days later.
A formal decree banning opium did not come down until April, where Akhunzada, the “supreme leader,” held a press conference to announce that any violators “will be treated according to the Sharia law.”
“Outlawing the production of narcotics in Afghanistan is a positive first step but enforcement will be key. Having a healthy and licit agricultural sector will help Afghanistan’s economy and ultimately the Afghan people,” Ian McCary, the U.S. Charge d’Affaires for Afghanistan, said shortly thereafter in response to the announcement.