Saffron Exported to 65 Countries

Iran exports saffron to 65 countries, says vice president of the Association of Saffron Producers and Exporters of South Khorasan.
“Iran is the producer of the best and high-quality saffron in the world,” Ali Hosseini was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Noting that the cultivation of saffron in Iran dates back to more than 3,000 years, he said the precious spice has applications in pharmaceutical, food and beverages, and cosmetics industries.
He also referred to Iran’s recent contract with Qatar for saffron export and said the first shipment was shipped a few days ago.
The world’s biggest contract for saffron trade was signed between Iran and Qatar on Sept. 18 in the presence of Iran’s Ambassador in Doha Hamidreza Dehqani and Qatar’s Minister of Finance Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari.
Based on the contract, 200 tons of saffron worth $300 million will be processed and exported from Iran to the neighboring Qatar.
Experts believe this contract is one of a kind and can have a positive impact on Iran’s domestic saffron market and help export processed instead of raw saffron, creating value added for the precious Iranian spice.
Iran produces over 90% of all saffron produced in the world, 80% of which are exported. However, the share of Iran in the global trade of saffron is disproportionately low, as many customers of the Iranian spice buy it in bulk and reexport after packaging it to third countries.
The Iranian saffron industry employs 200,000 people along the pre-harvest, harvest, post-harvest, processing, sorting and packaging chain. The livelihood of these people, farmers in particular, mainly depends on exports. 
Iran’s area under saffron cultivation exceeds 115,000 hectares, which is 20 times higher than the total land dedicated to growing saffron in the whole world. He said Iran is annually increasing the area by 5,000 hectares.
The city of Torbat-e Heydariyeh, in Khorasan Razavi is considered the capital of saffron in the world.
Besides Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan, South Khorasan provinces – the main hub of saffron production in Iran – saffron is also cultivated in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Khuzestan.
Per capita consumption of saffron in Iran has been put at 1 gram. Annually, 80 tons of saffron are consumed domestically. However, Gholamreza Miri, the deputy head of Iran National Saffron Council, says local demand for saffron has dropped by 70% following the outbreak of Covid-19 and the decline in wedding and funeral ceremonies, adding that saffron is no longer a priority in the food basket of Iranian households.
Saffron, the world's costliest spice by weight, is derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and coloring agent in food.
Saffron is widely used in Persian cuisine for its distinct aroma, color and taste.

Drought Impact

Drought has led to a significant decline in Iran’s production and export of saffron — traditionally a major non-oil export from the country.
Hosseini had earlier said Iran risks losing its major export destinations, in which it has had a foothold for decades now.
“Iran managed to overtake Spain as the world’s biggest saffron producer 30 years ago by producing quality produce at prices lower than in global markets,” he was quoted as saying, adding that now the neighboring countries are planning to take Iran’s place as production prices are rising.
According to this official, the decline in precipitation, especially in major saffron producing provinces of South Khorasan, North Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi, has led to 70% decline in production.
“We have been producing 450 tons of saffron per year. The figure has decreased to 200 tons this year,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying. 
Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture has warned that drought could cripple Iran’s agricultural sector and hamper economic growth.
And the Iranian Majlis Research Center says Khorasan Razavi as well as the provinces of Isfahan, Hormozgan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Ardebil, Fars and Markazi are facing a critical shortage of water. 
Drought has inflicted 670 trillion rials ($2.2 billion) in losses on Iran’s agriculture sector since the beginning of the current crop year, Mohammad Mousavi, director general of the Agriculture Ministry’s Crisis Management Department, said in June 2021.

Smuggling Is Rife

The chairman of Saffron Exporters Union touched upon the issue of high tariffs China and India have levied on imports of Iranian saffron (38%), which renders any shipments to these countries by Iranian exporters uneconomical and unviable.
He explained that smuggling to Afghanistan and Arab countries is on the rise, as these countries enjoy zero tariff in export to destination countries (China and India).
For centuries, Iranian saffron growers had little problem exporting their “red gold”. Of late, however, the precious stigmas of the crocus sativus, renowned for reaching prices by weight higher than gold in their most sought-after forms, have become distinctly trickier for Iranian growers to dispose of, as US and European sanctions close traditional trade routes and mechanisms, reads an article published in iNews.
The result is an increasingly shady supply chain for the treasured ingredient – considered key to many dishes – beset by smuggling, counterfeiting and adulteration as Iranian growers and traders seek to reach a market increasingly preyed upon by fraudsters and criminal gangs.
From plant-based bulking agents such as safflower, an inferior substitute referred to by medieval herbalists as “bastard saffron”, to the addition of illegal food dyes and even the production of fake threads using the strings from corn on the cob, the smuggling and faking of “red gold” has become a serious business.
One exporter based in Mashhad, a city in northeast Iran where the vast majority of saffron is grown, told iNews: “These are difficult times. Receiving payment from abroad is difficult because banks do not allow trade. It allows space for corruption and criminals. We still produce the best saffron in the world but if you have to smuggle or use middle men then there are for sure ingredients for problems.”
Legitimate Iranian producers complain that large-scale smuggling of their product – according to one estimate at least 10% of Iran’s crop is currently being sent clandestinely across the border to Afghanistan, which produces about 20 tons a year, from where it is sold on as Afghan or Kashmiri saffron.
Ali Shariati, spokesman for the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and head of the country’s largest saffron processor, said the smuggling of any product harms the healthy commercial activity of the country because demand within the legal framework is transferred to this irregular sector and prices are reduced.
With prices currently around £1,000 per kilo for medium quality saffron, much of the available Iranian spice is currently sold in bulk via merchants in the United Arab Emirates and Spain, from where it is stripped of anything identifying its Iranian geographical origin and sold onto the open market via markets including Turkey and Spain.
One trader based in the Iranian capital, Tehran, said: “The saffron farmers face the hardest time. There are many economic problems in Iran. A farmer will produce 200,000 flowers on average. Imagine the time it takes to turn that into about 1 kg of saffron? And for this effort he gets maybe $1,000 [£700]. It is not [red] gold for everyone.”