Residents of the Hat Yai district of Songkhla are looking for fresh Kratom leaves to consume and sell. Some vendors boil the leaves and make Kratom herbal drinks to sell by the bottle, both at stores and online. Most of the sellers say they were unemployed due to the impact of COVID-19 and by selling Kratom, they now have a job. According to the sellers, 1kg of Kratom leaves can bring a profit of B100-200.
However, they tend to agree that there should be an authority to control the trade in Kratom as there are concerns about the price as more people are now selling the crop.
At the same time in Bangkok, it was reported that some shops in Din Daeng market that now specialise in selling Kratom leaves are being overwhelmed by customers every day.
One of the sellers said only some customers buy Kratom leaves to resell, while most of them buy the leaves for their own consumption as the leaves have medicinal properties.
In addition, the majority of Kratom leaves are from the southern region where almost every province grows the plant. Besides being available at storefronts, people can also lookup social media platforms and online stores for Kratom products.