Kabul — Afghan opium producers have had a bumper year with output soaring 87% as the area under poppy cultivation hit a record high, the latest annual survey said on Wednesday. The price of opium as it left farms in war-torn Afghanistan this year soared by 55% to almost $1.4bn, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said, helping to fuel the bloody insurgency. Rising insecurity, lack of government control and corruption were among the key drivers, along with unemployment and lack of education, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey, jointly compiled by the UNODC and Afghanistan’s counter-narcotics ministry. Potential opium production from this year’s harvest is estimated at 9,000 tons, up 87% from the 4,800 tons produced last year, boosted by increased cultivation and better yields. Over the same period the area under poppy cultivation expanded by 63% to a record 328,000ha — topping the previous record of 224,000ha reached in 2014 — with the number of poppy-growing provinces ju...
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