“Some 115,000 hectares of land are under saffron cultivation in Iran, while the world’s total saffron farmlands stand at 122,000 hectares,” Mohammad Ali Tahmasebi added.

The official noted that the production of the priceless plant is observing a rapid growth, and some 5,000 hectares of land are added to saffron farms every year.

According to Hossein Zeinali, the medicinal plants’ project manager of Iran’s Agriculture Ministry, Iranian farmers are expected to produce a total of 430 tons of saffron in the current fiscal year (March 2019-2020).

Saffron is cultivated in 22 Iranian provinces; Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan and South Khorasan provinces, in eastern Iran, account for almost 90% of the country’s total saffron output.

Reportedly, the saffron industry has created some 200,000 jobs across the pre-harvest, harvest, post-harvest, processing, sorting and packaging chain.

Iran produced 404 tons of saffron during the year to March 20, of which 280 tons were exported.

The priceless spice was sent to more than 40 countries. Spain, Vietnam, Qatar and the UAE were Iran’s biggest saffron importers during the period, he added.