Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Some Iranian saffron traders use the Afghan market to expand their exports.
Farshid Manouchehri, Secretary General of the Iranian National Council of Saffron, said exporting saffron through Afghanistan is less expensive for Iranian traders, Iran's IRIB reported on May 7.
Iran is the main producer and exporter of saffron in the world with 250-300 tons of annual output, he added.
The value of Iran's saffron exports fell by 52 percent during last Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) compared to the preceding year.
The country exported some 136.6 tonnes of saffron, worth $200.2 million in the mentioned period, Iran's ISNA news agency reported on April 25.
Iran's saffron exports stood at 139.2 tonnes during the calendar year of 1391(ended on March 21, 2013).
While the volume of the exported saffron in last year was only 1.8 percent less than the preceding year's export, the sharp fall of Iran's saffron's price lead to decrease by 52 percent in value.
The value of Iran's exported saffron accounted for $418.8 million during the calendar year of 1391.
Iran currently exports 75 percent of its total saffron output to over 30 countries including Russia, Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Spain, Canada, Turkey, Belgium, Scotland, Sweden, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Estonia, Bahrain, Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, South Africa, Qatar, Japan, Kuwait, India, China, and Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian administration has developed a plan for raising the annual saffron output to 500 tons by 2021. The plan has envisaged boosting exports to over $1 billion by 2021.
