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Opium output in Golden Triangle drops

YANGON (MYANMAR): The opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle region, where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, fell 29 per cent in 2006, bringing the total decline in the region since 1998 to 85 per cent, said the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) said on Friday.

The UNODC's 2006 survey report on the Golden Triangle opium poppy cultivation, issued here at a press briefing, said the Golden Triangle's share of the world opium poppy cultivation has dropped from 66 per cent in 1998 to only 12 per cent in 2006 with Laos and Thailand almost being opium-free. ``If the current trend continues, there will soon be only one opium-producing country left in the world — Afghanistan,'' the UNODC chief said in the report.

The Golden Triangle region's opium poppy cultivated area was 24,160 hectares in 2006, down from 34,720 hectares in 2005 and 157,900 hectares in 1998, the survey report disclosed.

The Golden Triangle now produces only about 5 per cent of the world's opium, declining from by 33 per cent in 1998, the report added.

With regard to Myanmar, the survey report said the country's opium poppy cultivation fell 34 per cent to 21,500 hectares in 2006, representing a dramatic 83 per cent fall from 130,300 hectares in 1998. — Xinhua

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