About 152 tons of saffron worth more than $240 million were exported from Iran during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Nov. 21).
According to Gholamreza Miri, the deputy head of the National Saffron Council, the tonnage and value of exports show a 40% and 46% growth compared with the corresponding period of last year, Young Journalists Club reported.
Last year's (March 2017-18) exports hit a record high of 236 tons worth $325 million to register a 55% and 56% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the year before.
Iran is the world’s biggest producer of saffron and accounts for more than 90% of global production.
According to Mohsen Ehtesham, the head of National Saffron Council, Iran produces an average of 370 tons of saffron on over 108,000 hectares every year and ranks as the world’s top producer of the precious spice.
Saffron is cultivated across 22 provinces in the country. More than two-thirds of Iran's saffron are grown in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province.
“With around 84,000 hectares under saffron cultivation, Khorasan Razavi produces more than 290 tons of the spice, while South Khorasan Province produces about 54 tons on over 16,000 hectares. The other 20 provinces account for the remaining 32 tons,” Ehtesham was quoted as saying by the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
More than two-thirds of Iran's saffron are grown in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province
The saffron industry in Iran, the official said, has created 120,000 jobs across the pre-harvest, harvest, post-harvest, processing, sorting and packaging chain.
“This is a small figure compared with our competitive advantage in the field as well as our leading position in the global saffron production,” he said.
Ehtesham noted that the National Saffron Council is planning to increase the revenues and value added as well as job opportunities in the field by expanding saffron processing, packaging and branding within the country.
Per capita consumption of saffron in Iran stands at 1 gram. Annually, 80 tons of saffron are consumed domestically.
GIAHS Designation
The qanat-based saffron farming system in Iran's northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province’s Gonabad County was recently designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System.
The designation came at a meeting in Rome of the GIAHS Scientific Advisory Group affiliated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations on Dec. 21.
“This cultivation system is unique in that the farms are irrigated as per the qanat system built in the region hundreds of years ago. Since saffron is a drought-tolerant plant and Gonabad is located in an arid and semi-arid climate, this qanat-based saffron farming system, a legacy handed down to the farmers of the region by their ancestors, provides the means for efficient water management,” Ali Kianirad, an official with Agricultural Planning, Economic and Rural Development Research Institute, affiliated with the Agriculture Ministry, told Financial Tribune in an earlier interview.
Qanat is a gently sloping underground channel to transport water from an aquifer or water well to surface for irrigation and drinking. This is an old system of water supply from a deep well with a series of vertical access shafts.
