Afghanistan’s opium production halved in 2010 but soaring prices may encourage farmers to go back to opium cultivation, warned UNODC in its 2010 Afghan Opium Survey released yesterday.
This is good news but there is no room for false optimism; the market may again become lucrative for poppy-crop growers so we have to monitor the situation closely, said Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC.
This year production is estimated at 3,600 metric tons, down 48 percent from 2009. Shrinking supplies have driven the average price of dry opium to $169 a kilo, a 164 percent increase over last year when the price was $64 a kilo.
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