Around 80% of Iran’s saffron is grown in Khorasan Razavi Province, announced Hashem Naqibi, who is an official with the province’s Agricultural Jihad Organization.
“It is not wrong to say that Khorasan Razavi is world’s top producer of saffron given that our country accounts for more than 90% of global production of saffron,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Some 69,000 hectares in the northeastern province were under the cultivation of Crocus Sativus flower during the period between September 23, 2014 and September 23, 2015 which yielded 218 tons of saffron, he added.
Annual production of saffron in the world is 330 tons, 310 tons of which is produced in Iran.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of Saffron National Council believes that sanctions’ removal would not bring about a sea of change in exports. “Iran has a monopoly on saffron production and consumers have no way but to buy from us,” Mehr News Agency quoted Gholamreza Miri as saying.
During the sanctions—imposed over Iran’s nuclear energy program—Iran’s saffron had to be purchased through middlemen and exporters had to appeal to intermediaries to get their own money, he added.
“The nuclear agreement will resolve this problem and help us get a bigger share of the market.”
