Cannabis and Opium Business in Afghanistan

Production of cannabis in Afghanistan has increased again according to estimates that have been published for 2012 and the business is now worth $65 million a year. That’s a drop in the ocean maybe in monetary terms but it shows what has happened to the economy of Afghanistan. Afghan farmland might have been destroyed last year where the farmer had turned to growing more-money-spinning cannabis rather than crops, but it was a bumper year for production in 2012. Therefore, despite the destruction of that land, production actually increased.

Cannabis

The number of hectares fell from 1, 000 to just a tenth of that in 2012 in the southern province of Uruzgan as it saw a crack-down by the authorities for fear that it was financing the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist groups.

• Overall the resin yields are astonishingly high in Afghanistan compared to the rest of the world’s cannabis-producing nations.
• Morocco produces 36kg per hectare while Afghanistan turns out 145kg per hectare.
• Afghanistan is at the top of the list for cannabis production and has been now since 2009.
• There are 10, 000 to 24, 000 hectares that are dedicated to the production of cannabis in Afghanistan alone today.
• Afghanistan produces roughly 1, 400 tons of cannabis and that netted $65 million last year.
• The previous year had seen a smaller crop and yet due to the fact that prices were higher then it brought in around $100 million.