Saffron is the most expensive spice on earth – by a long shot! $7-10,000 per kg for Good quality imported saffron. However for NZ grown saffron you can pay over $35,000 per kg – up to $50,000 per kg for high quality boutique grown organic saffron. The ancient Greeks and Romans used saffron as perfume, and saffron is mentioned in the Chinese materia medica from the 1550s. Today the herb is also used as a cooking spice and a clothing dye. It’s now an essential part of some Eastern, Middle Eastern, and European dishes, such as the French bouillabaisse, Spanish paella, Moroccan tagines, and many more dishes. Saffron, however, is a very expensive spice. Its costliness has to do with its harvesting. Only a small amount of each saffron flower is used, and all harvesting must be done by hand.
By comparison ;
> Gold – approx $60,000 per kg
> Silver – approx $750 per kg
> Weed – approx $10,000 to $20,000 per kg
> Meth – approx $500,000 per kg
This may seem like a crazy price – however, you only use a very tiny bit. I buy it in “big” packets (4 grams @ about $30. I cook with a lot of Saffron (I have a few recipes using saffron) yet as a heavy user I would only use about 20 gram per year
Why is it saffron so expensive?
Saffron is expensive for two reasons (1) labour intensiveness; (2) rarity. Each flower has 3 stamens (or threads), each flower is picked by hand, and each flower is de-threaded by hand. It takes about 150,000 flowers to produce a kilo of Saffron. Numerous attemps to mechanise harvesting have not been successful…yet. Saffron production is declining in many parts of the world. In Kashmir in India for example, the Saffron crop has been ravaged by poor water management and a loss of prime growing land. Iran is the biggest producer of Saffron globally. Yet the industry is rife with adulteration. A report in 2012 showed that 99% of Spanish Saffron is low quality imported Iranian Saffron, repackaged as Premium Spanish Saffron and sold at a premium price. If you are buying Saffron from Spain – buy only Saffron from the La Mancha area. There are many other ocuntries that produce great Saffron, like we do in New Zealand.
Saffron quality varies, most people don’t know it. ISO 3632 is the international standard of Saffron quality. Legitimate growers will test against this standard as it is independent of any regulatory authority (Iran & Spain have their own internal Saffron quality standards). It is voluntary to test against ISO 3632. See if the Saffron you buy has been tested against ISO 3632.
If the Saffron you buy is cheap, it will be so for a reason – it’s poor quality, it’s old or not Saffron at all (like Safflower).
It is Very VERY labour intensive – yet it is grown in a lot of very poor labour rate countries (Iran, 90% of world production), Greece, Spain, Morocco, India) – it is still very expensive even thou the cost of labour there is very cheap (on world standards)
It is a bulb which pops up in mid-Autumn with a wee plant (that looks a bit like chives) which will produce 1 or up to 4 flowers over about 4 weeks. Once it stops flowering interestingly the plant will not die away over the winter – I think this is when the bulbs do their multiplying (this is called “mother and daughters”)
You need to pick the flower on the day it sprouts (because the flower wilts & dies very quickly) albeit depending on the weather I sometimes stretch the harvest out to 3 days. – a 3 day old flower may be a bit wilted but the stigma is still in good enough condition
You then very carefully remove the red stigmas – discard the flower
The wee three strand stigmas is then dried (dry stigma weighs approximately 1/4 of fresh) – this can be done in the Sun however 10 minutes in a low heat oven works
It takes about 150,000 to 200,000 flower stigmas to make 1 kg of dried saffron. To put that in context – that is approx 5 cent per flower (based on $10,000 per kg saffron)
I have been growing Saffron for about 10 years – I started with 10 bulbs now I have about 600 (every 2nd year they need to be dug up and split the bulbs up – ie plant all “daughter” bulbs out on their own)
In 8 years I have produced total of about 5 grams of saffron
If I was to value my labour (over 10 years) at the minimum wage my 5 grams is “worth” equivalent of $2.5m per kg.
Having said that, 2018 was a bumper crop – about 2 grams (about 250 flowers picked) – that is circa $500,000 per kg
When purchasing saffron, buy it in an airtight, lightproof container, usually a tiny black bag or plastic box inside a larger container. And make sure it is, indeed, expensive. The “saffron” sold in large inexpensive packages in the Mexican section is marigold. They are pretty, make food yellow and have many uses, but they don’t taste like saffron. Ground saffron is usually cut with turmeric or other inferior ingredients.
So, if you born with a good look and fairy face there might have a effect of saffron along with yours parents jeans.
