The Taliban has earned up to $470 million from the Afghan opium trade this year alone, the United Nations said on Thursday, money that is being used to finance the insurgency against US and Afghan forces. As well as the income earned from directly taxing farmers' output and from levies on opium processing and on trafficking the drug, there is evidence the Taliban is hoarding opium stocks to prop up prices, the UN said in a report.
This suggests the Taliban may not be overly worried in the short-term by US-led efforts to eradicate poppy fields because lower supply may end up lifting prices, potentially allowing the militant movement to increase its earnings. "Despite the drop in opium cultivation, production and prices, the Taliban and other anti-government forces are making massive amounts of money from the drug business," the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said in its 2008 Afghan opium survey.
This revenue rise comes at a time when the Taliban is stepping up attacks throughout Afghanistan, especially in the south and east, across the border from Pakistan, where the US military says al Qaeda and Taliban cells are now based. The UN report estimated the Taliban earned $50-$70 million from imposing a 10 percent charge, called ushr, on economic activities such as opium farming this year, as well as $200-$400 million from levies on opium processing and heroin trafficking.
"With so much drug-related revenue, it is not surprising that the insurgents' war machine has proved so resilient, despite the heavy pounding by Afghan and allied forces," Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC executive director, said in the report.
The income - the first time the United Nations has put such a high figure on the Taliban's revenue stream - does not include money the Taliban is believed to be making from exports of cannabis, another widely produced Afghan crop.
In its report, the UN said opium poppy production - the raw material for heroin that is exported to Europe, the Middle East and the United States - had actually fallen substantially in 2008 following a US and Afghan government crackdown. It said opium cultivation declined by 19 percent to 157,000 hectares countrywide, almost all in the south, with production down by six percent and prices falling by around 20 percent.
"As a result, the value of opium to farmers dropped by more than a quarter between 2007 and 2008, from $1 billion to $730 million," the report said. "The export value of opium, morphine and heroin (at border prices in neighbouring countries) for Afghan traffickers is also down, from $4 billion in 2007 to $3.4 billion this year." As a result of that revenue decline, and the fall in international prices, Costa said there was evidence the Taliban and its associates were hoarding opium stocks in order to manipulate market prices.