Poppies: Lucrative Crop For Aussie Farmers 

More than 1,000 Australian farmers have begun harvesting a crop which has become more synonymous with Afghan warlords.

Mike Badcock's family have 
farmed for nearly 50 years

 

But while western governments try and fail to stop the illegal opium trade, the legitimate version is one of Tasmania's most profitable businesses, worth around £50m a year.

Almost half a century ago, the pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline was looking for a southern hemisphere site to grow poppies to produce alkaloids to make painkillers.

It settled on the island state of Tasmania because of its climate and the natural security offered by a place with no land borders.

Now, it provides around half the world's supply of legal opiates.

Research and development has improved yields, and in early summer 25,000 hectares of farmland is covered with the purple flowers, which are nature's chemical factory.

The poppies are grown under licence from the manufacturers and the state government, and there are strict rules on who is allowed to grow the plants.

"All growers have to be licensed yearly," says farmer Mike Badcock whose family have been planting poppies for almost half a century.

"They have to have police checks on their characters, so if we have a drugs offence or anything else to our name, you will not get a licence to grow."

All fields have to be fenced, including a layer of barbed wire, and warning signs indicate that the crop is a little different from traditional fruit and vegetables.

A sign warns outsiders to keep away

  

But despite the precautions, security is not as comprehensive as you might expect, with the flowers almost within touching distance of the road.

It wouldn't take a determined thief to hop over the fence and grab a few capsules.
Steve Morris from GSK says security patrols are increased during harvest time, but the farming equivalent of Neighbourhood Watch also keeps the crop safe.
"Poppies have been part of the environment for over 40 years so people are used to it. Tasmania is a very rural environment.
"Everybody knows each other and there’s a sort of passive network of security that happens."
To obtain heroin, poppies have to be bled while still growing - by the time the crop is harvested the capsules have dried.
The GSK factory at Latrobe processes the poppy straw, obtaining morphine and codeine.
The seeds are then separated and cleaned, providing a useful by-product. Poppy seeds go to bakeries to be sprinkled on bread and bagels.

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