Iran: Saffron Tops CD List

Almost 97.7 million commodity-linked certificates of deposit (CD) were traded at the Iran Mercantile Exchange in the first nine months of current fiscal year (March 20-Dec. 21).
Value of CDs was reported at 67.59 trillion rials ($270 million) – up 174% compared to the corresponding period last year. In volume terms the trade was 124% higher on an annualized basis, according to the IME news agency imereport.ir. 
With 60.46 trillion rials ($240m) the gold-based CD topped the list in value terms accounting for 89% of the trade in the three quarters.  Investors exchanged 34.04 million gold CDs in the period or 35% of the total. 
Saffron, aka red gold, was the next best traded CD in value terms. However, it was on the top in the number of deals.  As per IME data ‘Negin Saffron’ was the best traded CD as the world’s most expensive spice recorded 58.9 million deals worth 5.76 trillion rials, accounting for 60% of volume and 9% of the value of the CDs. Negin Saffron is considered as the highest-quality of Iranian saffron.