Afghanistan’s opium production boom
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An estimated 80 percent of the world’s opium and heroin comes from Afghanistan, with production and exports centred in areas controlled by the Taliban
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CHANGE IN OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION 
(by province), 2019-2020

AFGHANISTAN
Kabul
Baghlan 111%
Faryab: 98%
Badghis: 194%
Kandahar 47% 
Farah: 47% 
Zabul 123% 
Ghazni: 136%

Poppy free
Decrease
Increase
Strong increase (over 30%)

Total increase in opium poppy cultivation (2019-2020) 37%

200km  125 miles
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OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION (hectares)
 
2001 (Taliban ban on poppy growing) 

8,000
2010 123,000 
2017 (record high)  328,000
2020 224,000

2018-19: Taliban likely earned more than $400 million from Afghanistan’s illicit drug trade, according to UN officials

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Sources: AFP, Reuters, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime © GRAPHIC NEWS