VIENNA — Opium prices in Afghanistan are soaring and handing "massive profits" to criminal groups following a poppy cultivation ban imposed by the Taliban authorities, the United Nations' drugs watchdog said on Wednesday.

 

In 2024, opium prices reached $750 per kilogramme, a tenfold growth from $75 per kilogram in 2022 when the Taliban government banned poppy growing, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a statement.

 

Previously the world's biggest opium producer, Afghanistan has seen a steep decline in output since the ban.

 

The move curbed trafficking, sending heroin and opium seizures down by 50 per cent in weight against 2021, while prices skyrocketed.

 

"Despite the lower trade volumes, the high price per kilogramme ensures massive profits are still being made, primarily benefiting high-level traders and exporters in organised crime groups," the UNODC said, adding prices are at "recent historic peaks".

 

The long-running average was around $75 per kilogram but increased after the Taliban authorities took over in 2021, reaching a monthly peak of $800 per kilogramme in December 2023, UNODC said.

 

It added that estimated stocks of 13,200 tonnes at the end of 2022 -- mostly held by large traders and exporters -- would suffice to meet demand for Afghan opiates until 2027.

 

"The surge in opium prices and the substantial stockpiles mean that drug trafficking in Afghanistan remains a highly profitable illicit trade," said UNODC head Ghada Waly.

 

She added drug trade by international organised crime groups destabilised "Afghanistan, the region and beyond", calling for a strategy to crack down on trafficking networks.

 

Waly also urged investment in improving the conditions of Afghan farmers to make them turn away from opium, a drive echoed by the Taliban government.

 

"Sustainable economic alternatives are urgently needed to discourage them from potentially returning to poppy cultivation, particularly given currently high opium prices," the UNODC said.

 

It also warned the opium shortage might lead buyers to turn to more harmful alternatives including the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

 

Taliban authorities said last week they had seized more than six tonnes of opium in the north of the country, the largest single haul since their return to power four years ago.

 

Last December, over 100 people were arrested for growing poppy in the northeastern Badakhshan region, which has resisted the ban.

 

Clashes between farmers and police sent to destroy poppy fields left several people dead last May.