Eight-month saffron exports exceeded $250m

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, Farshid Manouchehri said, “Iran is the world’s biggest saffron producer and accounts for more than 95 percent of global production.”

“Iran sells saffron to 45 countries,” he said, adding that the country has no big rivals in producing saffron in the world.

Naming Spain and Afghanistan, Manouchehri said that “the production of saffron in these countries does not exceed 15 tons per year'.

“Spain used to be a competitor for Iran in terms of production, but the global production of saffron is now in the hands of Iran.”

Pointing to Afghanistan’s efforts to export saffron, the official said, the neighboring country has the capacity to cultivate saffron, but the country does not have a big share of the world’s saffron production as of yet.

“However, we should not ignore it and need to double our efforts to increase our share in the world’s markets.”

Close to 95 percent of Iranian saffron is grown in the two provinces of South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi in northeastern Iran, Manouchehri said, adding that saffron production in the country saw an increase because of favorable climate conditions in the previous months.

Poor marketing

The official said Iran’s saffron are usually exported in one-kilo, 500-gram and one-gram packages, noting that more efforts are needed in marketing to introduce Iranian saffron to world markets.

Despite the near-total dominance in output, Iranian saffron is repackaged, reexported and sold under foreign brands by other countries, depriving Iran of the value added.

“Countries like Italy, Greece and Spain, which are famous in saffron market, purchase Iran’s saffron in bulk and then rebrand and reexport it to other European countries.'

“These countries are reaping a huge profit by rebranding, at least gaining 100 percent in value added,” he concluded.

source : irna