Herati Saffron- Radio Free Europe
"Bashir Ahmad Ahmadi is the head of agriculture administration in the western Afghan province. Having just completed the test phase of a farming project there, he is now urging farmers in his region to grow the saffron flower -- Crocus Sativus Linneaus -- instead of opium poppies.
'Herati saffron has beaten the international record for the most productive farm yield. I can confirm this,' Ahmadi says. 'The world's top producers of saffron are able to get farm yields of about 8 kilograms of saffron per hectare. But the Herati saffron fields have been even more productive [than that].'"
The problem is packaging and distribution channels. Iran is a massive producer of saffron but because of packaging issues, up to 85% of its saffron is sold as bulk and packaged in Europe and elsewhere. Like opium, the farmer can only receive a couple of hundred dollars per kilo for high-quality unpackaged saffron. Packaged in Italy or Spain, it's resold for more than $2000.
The investment potential for anybody able to figure out how to process (laborious and time-consuming work) and package locally would be through the roof. It would provide employment to seasonal workers while recapturing much of that $1800 dollars per kilo margin back into the Afghan economy minus shipping costs to markets.
Who knows, maybe it would save us $.50 on a plate of paella.
