The fall in the saffron harvest in Iran led to an increase in prices for the most expensive spice – Kommersant

The volume of saffron production in Iran at the end of 2023 will be 170 tons, last year it was almost 400 tons. The decline in yields has already led to an increase in prices for the most expensive spice in the world to $1.8 thousand per kg, the newspaper writes. Financial Times (FT).

About 90% of all saffron in the world is produced in Iran, the newspaper clarifies. The representative of the saffron exchange, Mojtaba Payam-Asgari, in a conversation with the FT, said that the decrease in production was due to weather conditions: in the summer of 2023, the air temperature in Iran reached +50°C. Iranian ecologist Mohammad Darwish clarified that such anomalies in the country will occur more often due to climate change.

The high cost of saffron, as FT writes, is explained by the complexity of its collection: about 170 thousand flowers are needed to produce 1 kg of spice. Its value has increased in recent years, resulting in the launch of an exchange, as well as the creation of futures and a saffron investment fund.

Consumption of saffron within Iran, which accounts for about a quarter of total production, is falling amid the crisis in the country and rising inflation – at the end of 2023 it amounted to almost 40%. Because of this, the cost of the spice in Iran increased to $1.4 thousand, which is why its sales decreased by half, the FT source said.

Petr Buzlaev