Tehran, YJC. Official says the Iranian saffron is exported from Spain and UAE under the exporter country’s name.
Member of Iran’s National Saffron Council in interview with
ISNA said "Last year 126.6 tons of saffron were exported to 45 countries. This
export volume of saffron in the first two months of this year reached 20 tons,
approximately half of which is first exported to countries such as Spain and
the United Arab Emirates and then from there to the end user countries under
these two countries’ names.”
"In the first two months of this year around one ton of the
saffron was exported in packages lighter than 10 grams, 11 tons in packages 10
to 30 grams, and around 8 tons in packages heavier than 30 grams which shows
that aside from the 10-gram packages, the rest of the saffron is capable of
being re-packaged,” Ali Hosseini said.
He maintained that Iran’s export saffron value is about $500
million "Which last year made the country around $200 foreign currency. But we
can make it hit $1 billion by 2016 if the government shows support and if we
can tap into the existing potentials.”
Hosseini further stated "We cannot claim to be providing the
world with 95 percent of the saffron it consumes. But we will have to be able
to package and export the product according to our own taste. So there must be
some measures to create the culture and to do some saffron marketing in order
to make the world better acquainted with the Iranian brands of saffron.”