Afghanistan’s opium trade collapses, but synthetic drug surge takes its place

Afghanistan’s once-dominant opium industry has withered under the Taliban’s drug ban, with cultivation down 20 percent this year, but the UN warns that methamphetamine is rapidly filling the void.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Thursday that opium poppy fields now cover just 10,200 hectares, a fraction of the 232,000 hectares farmed before the Taliban outlawed poppy cultivation in 2022. In 2013, Afghanistan supplied nearly three-quarters of the world’s opium.

“After the ban, many farmers turned to growing cereals and other crops. However, deteriorating weather conditions due to drought and low rainfall have led to more than 40 percent of agricultural land being left fallow,” the report said.

Afghanistan produced an estimated 296 tonnes of opium in 2024, its lowest output in decades, falling behind Myanmar for the first time. Revenues for farmers dropped by nearly half to about $134 million. Prices, though, have remained sky-high, nearly five times the pre-ban average, as demand endures.

Before the crackdown, Afghan farmers harvested more than 4,600 tonnes annually despite heavy risks. The Taliban have since destroyed most processing sites, pushing cultivation northeast to provinces like Badakhshan, where some farmers have fought back. In one clash last May, several people were killed when Taliban forces enforced the ban.

The UN has urged countries to help Afghan farmers find new livelihoods, but the Taliban’s government has offered few viable alternatives in an economy already crippled by isolation and drought.

Meanwhile, the UNODC warns that the global drug trade is simply shifting form. Seizures of synthetic drugs, particularly methamphetamine, have surged by 50 percent across Afghanistan and neighboring states since late 2024.

“Synthetic drugs appear to have become a new economic model for organised criminal groups due to their relatively easy production, greater difficulty in detection, and relative resilience to climate change,” the agency said.

Afghanistan’s opium output once peaked at 9,900 tonnes in 2017, worth about $1.4 billion, roughly 7 percent of the country’s GDP. Now, that era seems to be ending, even as a more elusive and potent trade begins to rise from its ashes.