News: 7 to 10 percent growth of saffron cultivation in Afghanistan this year
Akbar Rostami, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, said that saffron cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 7% in some areas this year. Afghanistan’s saffron fields are expected to increase by up to 10 percent, which will have a direct impact on increasing saffron yields,” He said.
Saffron is the most expensive spices in the world and there are a number of reasons why it is so. Here is a list or reasons:
News: Top 10 Saffron re-exporters in World
Iran holds the title of the largest producer of saffron in the world, but has no place in the export market of this product and does not benefit from the final added value. The reason for this depends on several factors:
Iran Is the biggest saffron producer in world. Saffron production in Iran this year is 500 tons, which is 402 tons last year and 96 tons has been added to saffron production in Iran. The area under saffron cultivation in Iran this year is 188 thousand hectares, which was 115 thousand hectares last year. This shows that the main reason for the increase of 96 tons of saffron this year is the increase in yield.
Spain harvests about 1.5 tons of saffron a year, but its exports are about 90 tons; this means exporting Iranian saffron with its own brand. Last year, 122,000 hectares of saffron were planted in the world, of which 115,000 hectares belonged to Iran. Performance and production of saffron per hectare in all countries is on average 4 kg, but it is 3.3 kg in Iran. if the conditions and cultivation are done properly and practically, 20 kilos of saffron will be harvested per hectare.
*Please note that all of these statistics are approximate.
News: Saffron stops yellow spot disease in eyes.
The collaboration between Royan Institute researchers and the University of Dresden in Germany revealed:
you can read more about saffron benefits here.
Growing up in Khorasan where saffron is synonymous with living, I knew saffron as the king of spice. Today at $25,00 a kilogram, it is the most expensive item in our supermarket ! Let’s take a look at saffron production, the most expensive spice in the world.
Saffron is currently being cultivated more or less intensely in Iran, India (Kashmir valley), Greece, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Turkey, France, Switzerland, Pakistan, China, Japan, Afghanistan and recently in Australia. By the way, Iran is the world’s most important producer.
In an interview with Tehran-based English newspaper, Iran Daily, Gholamreza Miri added Iran produced saffron valued at $373.33 million in the year to March 2018. He noted that according to figures released by Iran’s Agricultural Jihad Ministry, Iran produced 336 tons of saffron in the year to March 2018. That 20% percent of it is used for internal usage and 80% , near 270 tons, for export.