Written question asked by Lord Rowe-Beddoe (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour) on Monday, 29 September 2008.

Afghanistan: Poppy Crop

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the anticipated receipts to the Afghan farming community for its production of the poppy crop in the 2008 calendar year are more or less than the United Kingdom defence budget allocated to support United Kingdom military operations in Afghanistan for the same period.

Answer: We do not allocate funds specifically to support operations in Afghanistan, as the net additional costs are recovered from the Treasury reserve. The figure for 2007-08 was £1.5 billion. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the total export value of opiates produced in and trafficked from Afghanistan in 2007 was about $4 billion. The vast majority of profits from the opium trade go to drug traffickers rather than the farmers, and most of the traffickers’ profits go outside the country.

Secondary information