How to sell saffron in usa
Why Real Saffron Is So Expensive | So Expensive
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even in the expensive world of spices
saffron stands out and real saffron can
cost you over ten thousand dollars per
kilogram
sought after for thousands of years as a
spice a dye and a medicine you need over
150 flowers to make just one gram of
saffron
and the stuff you have at home in the
cupboard could well be fake
so just what makes this spice so
expensive
saffron is the red stigma of the crocus
sativus
each crocus has three small stigmas that
have to be picked carefully by hand
this minuscule harvest means that the
amount you get from each flower
is roughly 0.006 grams
no machine can do the delicate work
required to harvest these thin threads
and it can take 40 hours of hard manual
labor to produce just one kilogram of
high quality saffron
growing the plants isn't exactly easy
either
they're actually called corns but we
they're like a bulb basically like a
flower bulb so the more flowers per bulb
you can get and the bigger the flowers
really and that all depends on
how you look after it how you grow it
the climate
so for example if it rains just before
harvest we get bigger flowers
if it's very dry just before harvest the
flowers are smaller so you look after
the crop during the year by hand
and you pick the flowers by hand and you
process the flowers by hand
once the crop starts flowering
harvesters have to work fast to make
sure they can pick it all in time
almost all of the saffron planted can
flower within one week of the year
and to maintain the quality the flowers
are best picked first thing in the
morning
quality is key when growing such a
precise crop and the taste of the
saffron depends on the rainfall
temperature and soil kashmir is famed
for producing some of the highest
quality saffron in the world
and that small strand of saffron that
you harvest as a result of all of this
work well to get the highest grades you
might need to throw half of it away
the most expensive highest grade saffron
is generally made up of just the very
tips of the stigma
in iran wherever 90 of the world saffron
is produced
there are four grades the lowest grade
is the bunch
that's the entire strand that's pulled
from the flower from the dark red tips
to the yellow base
in higher grades the yellow strand is
removed leaving only a long strand of
pure red
that means a kilo of saffron could be
made up of 450
000 strands and to get that many strands
you need 150
000 flowers and those flowers take up a
lot of growing space
cumin for example can yield 600 kilos
per acre
nutmeg gets you around 350 kilograms in
the same space
use that land for saffron instead and
you get a 1.8 kilogram harvest
despite the incredible amount of work
and space this crop takes up
demand for the spice is increasing and
over 200 metric tons of saffron threads
are harvested worldwide
each year that's the result of about 30
billion flowers
demand for the threads is so high that
many adulterate or produce fake saffron
threads that look real at first glance
could actually be made of corn silks
coconut fibers or even horse hair
synthetic colorings are also used to dye
the lower grade stigmas and sell them as
high grade saffron
in late 2019 a fake saffron crime ring
was uncovered in the uk
which led to a two-year international
investigation and back in 2010
spain exported 190 000 kilos of saffron
worth 50 million dollars but the
country's total production amounted to
only 1
500 kilos at the time a local farmers
union reported that up to 90
of spanish saffron exports were
fraudulent
the industry has attempted to crack down
on these fake and mislabeled products
but the problem still persists and the
market for fake saffron is closing many
real saffron farmers down
so what does real saffron actually taste
like i've been asked that one by
a lot of people over the years it's uh
it's so difficult to describe which is i
think
part of its fascination for people and
why it ended up you know
as an expensive product because it is it
just adds something
it's a bittersweet flavor it's an earthy
flavour
trying to replicate it's very difficult
we've you know people have
tried to do that i know while saffron is
just as popular as ever it's been sought
after throughout history
in greek mythology zeus sometimes slept
on a bed of saffron
and cleopatra was said to bathe in
saffron and milk
using the dyeing properties of the spice
as an ancient fake tan
every culture seems to have its own myth
about the spices powers
and in the 14th century saffron's
popularity skyrocketed across europe
when it was thought to be a possible
cure for the plague
but there's a recent looming problem for
saffron and its price
climate change in kashmir production has
dropped significantly
and many farmers are selling their land
instead we had you know
very few uh rains in the last i think
four or five years the temperature and
the climate has completely changed in
kashmir when i was a kid when we used to
go to the saffron farms to
pick up the saffron we would it would at
least take us two days to pick up the
saffron from the same fields
which you know nowadays you could just
pick up in half an hour
i'm very emotional about the the saffron
because this is a cultural identity of
kashmir and especially
the people of pampur but the thing is
that you know the production is
declining
and you know the lands are being sold
the
houses are being built on the saffron
lands you know it really disheartens me
between 2017 and 18 saffron production
in the region fell almost 70 percent
from 16.5 metric tons down to 5.2
and with continuing droughts and climate
change this harvest could become even
more rare
