Afghan opium output drops 50pc: UN
Friday, 1 October 2010
KABUL, Sept 30 (AFP): Opium output in Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of the drug, has dropped by almost a half this year due to a crop disease but its value has soared, a UN report said Thursday.
Afghanistan has produced an estimated 3,600 tonnes of opium this year, almost 50 percent of the 2009 output, according to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
But the value of the opium rose by 38 percent to 604 million dollars at the farm gate, its Afghanistan Opium Survey 2010 said.
The report, released in Kabul, put the value of opium output at five percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) this year, and said this was more than six times the value of the country's wheat crop.
Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world's opium.
The report said the decline was caused by a disease that affected opium poppy fields in the major growing provinces, mainly Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated.
Afghanistan has produced an estimated 3,600 tonnes of opium this year, almost 50 percent of the 2009 output, according to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
But the value of the opium rose by 38 percent to 604 million dollars at the farm gate, its Afghanistan Opium Survey 2010 said.
The report, released in Kabul, put the value of opium output at five percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) this year, and said this was more than six times the value of the country's wheat crop.
Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world's opium.
The report said the decline was caused by a disease that affected opium poppy fields in the major growing provinces, mainly Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated.