Myanmar opium harvest falls for first time since coup

Opium production in Myanmar has fallen for the first time since a military coup in 2021, the UN said on Dec 12, but the country remains the world's biggest producer of the narcotic.

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Poppies have long flourished in Myanmar's remote borderlands, where ethnic minority armed groups and criminal outfits refine them into heroin and law enforcement turns a blind eye to the billion-dollar trade, analysts say.

In 2023, Myanmar became the world's biggest producer of opium, harvesting 1,080 tonnes of the narcotic more than double that of previous leader Afghanistan after the Taleban government cracked down on poppy cultivation.

Myanmar produced 995 tonnes of opium in 2024, according to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).