Iran exported 40 tons of saffron during the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21) to witness a decline of 15% compared with last year’s corresponding period.
According to Ali Hosseini, a member of Iran's National Saffron Council, the price of Iranian saffron on global market currently stands at €700-1,000 per kilogram, ILNA reported.
The price range indicates that Iran’s saffron exports were worth €28-40 million in Q1.
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 108,000 hectares of land annually and ranks as the world’s top producer of the precious spice.
Saffron is cultivated across 22 Iranian provinces. 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 around 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.
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 number compared with our competitive advantage in the field and our leading position in the global saffron production,” he added.
Ehtesham noted that the National Saffron Council is planning to take measures to increase revenues, value added and jobs in the sector by expanding saffron processing, packaging and branding.
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 has been designated 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 the United Nations on Dec. 21, 2018.
“This cultivation system is unique in that the farms are irrigated via qanat systems that were constructed in the region hundreds of years ago. As saffron is a drought-tolerant plant and Gonabad is located in an arid and semi-arid region, the qanat-based saffron farming system, a legacy handed down to 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, had 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.
