The Macedonian opium was of the highest quality in the world due to its rich content of morphine. As far back as the 1880s, Macedonian opium poppy had an international reputation for being of high quality, owing to the region’s particular environmental conditions. From 1918–1941, the production of opium in present-day Macedonia satisfied 43% of the demand from the global legal processing industry. The Macedonian names for this plant are “afion” and “mak”. The poppy was even included in the national coat of arms of Republic of Macedonia.
From grain to industrial product – Poppy (1978)
