17 December 2009 - The potential gross export value of Afghanistan's opiates is down 18 per cent, from US$ 3.4 billion in 2008 to US$ 2.8 billion in 2009 - an equivalent of around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). This is the main finding of the
Afghanistan Opium Survey 2009
issued today by UNODC. The decline can be attributed to less cultivation, lower production, lower prices and relatively higher GDP.
In the survey, UNODC confirms that market forces are moving against the Afghan drugs trade as lower revenues and excess production have put a damper on supply. As already reported in September in the Summary Findings of the survey, in 2009 opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan decreased by 22 per cent, and production fell by 10 per cent (to 6,900 tons). The number of people involved in opium poppy cultivation (1.6 million) has dropped by one third, and the number of poppy-free provinces is up from 18 to 20.
The information in the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2009 is considerably more detailed than that in the Summary Findings . It includes new data, for example on heroin prices and counter-narcotics operations. Furthermore, the survey contains information on the methodology used, explaining how the information was derived.
"Military and market forces are reducing the impact of opium on Afghanistan's economy", said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. "I urge President Karzai to make integrity as high a priority as security - you cannot have one without the other".
"Annual fluctuations of opium cultivation and production do not tell the whole story", said the head of UNODC. "I hope that the new Afghan National Drug Control Strategy, currently under preparation, will reassert that success will come when Afghanistan's farmers have sustainable licit livelihoods, when drug traffickers no longer operate with impunity, and when people no longer have to pay bribes for basic services. The alternative of a society wracked by drugs, insurgency, and corruption is untenable."
