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An opium field in the Afghan province of Ningarhar: the harvest yield is increasing
Photo:
AHMAD MASOOD / REUTERS
The opium production in Afghanistan and the prices for the heroin raw material have increased according to the United Nations.
In the harvest season, which ended in July, 6,800 tons were harvested - eight percent more than in the same period of the previous year, reported the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna.
The militant Islamist Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan in August, are considered to have profited from the drug trade. Afghan opium dominates the illegal world market: According to UNDOC, between 1.8 billion and 2.7 billion US dollars (1.6 billion and 2.4 billion euros) were sold in Afghanistan this year. Around a tenth of Afghan economic output is based on opium.
In view of the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan, the German government's drug commissioner Daniele Ludwig (CSU) had warned against expanding the supply of heroin and crystal meth in Europe. "We have to expect that the Taliban will not reduce drug cultivation in the future, but rather expand it," Ludwig had told the editorial network in Germany. The Taliban announced that they would reduce production to "zero"; However, experts doubt that.
Especially since cultivation is becoming more and more lucrative: "The ongoing uncertainty since August 2021 has pushed opium prices up in August and September and strengthens the incentive for opium cultivation," said the UN report.
Therefore, international help is urgently needed in order to finance programs to reduce opium production locally.
Because at the moment the sowing for the next year's harvest is already beginning.
The UNODC also warned of rising production of the stimulant drug methamphetamine in Afghanistan.
hba / dpa