According to UNODC, which nation has recently overtaken Afghanistan to take the top spot as the world's opium producer in 2023?

After a significant crackdown on poppy cultivation since early 2022, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan was surpassed by Myanmar to become the world's largest producer of opium in 2023. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports that 1,080 metric tonnes of opium, which is used to make heroin, were produced in Myanmar this year. Meanwhile, after the Islamist Taliban rulers outlawed poppies, claiming they were un-Islamic, Afghanistan's production levels fell by 95% to just 330 tonnes. The growing instability and conflict in the country since the coup in 2021 is blamed for the growth of the illegal opiate economy in war-torn Myanmar.