Agriculture

Saffron adds spice to Turkey’s agriculture offering

November 20, 2024, 12:24 PM

Saffron being cultivated in the province of Eskişehir, Turkey. The country does not currently grow enough to meet its own needs

One kilo can sell for $10,000
Hope to halt production decline
Drought-resistant crop

Turkey is hoping an age-old product, saffron spice, will boost the value of its agriculture sector.

A new project aims to double the area of saffron under cultivation to meet domestic demand and form the basis for exports in the rare and valuable spice.

Saffon-A Tarim AŞ, a private sector company, has begun harvesting 100 hectares of saffron in the northwestern province of Eskişehir, more than doubling the land presently under cultivation in Turkey.

In Ottoman times and the early years of the republic, Turkey was a leading producer and exporter of the spice. Much of the production centred around Safranbolu, a historic town in the country’s north named after its main crop.

Times and tastes changed, bringing an increased emphasis on mainstream food crops and a shift to mechanisation in agriculture. Saffron production tailed off.

Egemen Temizsoy, the general co-ordinator for Saffon-A, says the new project, along with other steps to increase production, aims to reverse this decline.

“Currently, Turkey can’t meet domestic requirements, which are filled by other saffron exporting countries,” he told AGBI. “We aim to increase the saffron production of Turkey by 100 percent.”

If so, Saffon-A could be on to a winner. International saffron prices vary greatly, depending on quality and seasonal availability, but top-end product currently sells for $10 or more a gram, pricing a single kilo at $10,000 or above.

Another factor which boosts saffron’s appeal as a cash crop is its drought resistance, a significant asset as Turkey’s agricultural sector grapples with climate change.

Saffron requires annual rainfall of only 30 centimetres, or moderate drip irrigation. This is less demanding than many of the other crops now being cultivated in Turkey’s increasingly water-stressed hinterlands.

While returns can be high, so too are expenses. Skilled workers are required to harvest the individual threads from the flowers in a labour-intensive process. There is also increasing competition for land from sprawling urbanisation, rising input costs, and difficulties in sourcing bulbs.

Saffon-A intends to provide a solution to the last difficulty. To expand capacity, the company is working to deepen the pool of growers, aiming to boost its own production while encouraging other farmers to switch to saffron.

To do this, the company intends to extend its operations from primary production, to act as a buyer of raw saffron and ultimately exporter, lengthening its own business chain, Temizsoy said.

The product should have no shortage of buyers. Even with the new acreage under cultivation, Turkey will fall short of meeting domestic demand.

Saffon-A’s moves to ramp up production have already attracted overseas attention, with dealers in Europe inquiring about future import potential.

“We are also producing bulbs, and we intend to provide them to investors or farmers who want to grow saffron. We aim to establish a model where we have buying contracts to acquire their product,” Temizsoy said.