Lorestan saffron (red gold) is exported in the name of Mashhad

Lorestan saffron (red gold) is exported in the name of Mashhad

Lorestan saffron is a high-quality “red gold” grown in Iran’s Lorestan province, yet much of it is still sold through traders in Tehran and Mashhad and exported under the Mashhad name — hiding the province’s real role in producing it.

Saffron belongs to the iris family and is the most expensive plant-derived product in the world, typically priced by the gram rather than by the ton like most crops. It tolerates drought well and grows in almost any soil type. Its most valuable compound is crocin, the pigment responsible for saffron’s distinctive red-gold color.

The product that is consumed as saffron is the flower flag, prized historically for its aroma, color, and use as a spice.

Wild saffron has long grown in Lorestan, and the province’s ecological conditions make it well suited to cultivating this “red gold.” Local farmers say the crop deserves more recognition than it currently gets.

A saffron farmer from Lorestan, Ali Delfan, said he has set aside a thousand square meters of land in the Kamalvand area of Khorramabad for saffron cultivation, yielding two to three kilograms a year.

Delfan said growing the crop isn’t the problem — selling it is. Because Lorestan’s Agricultural Jihad organization doesn’t purchase saffron directly from local farmers, and because growers lack proper packaging, most of the province’s saffron ends up sold to buyers in Tehran and Mashhad, who then export it under their own provinces’ names.

He suggested the Agricultural Jihad organization could help by forming farmer cooperatives to purchase the crop directly and by supporting farmers with financing.

“Lorestan saffron is excellent in essential oil content, taste, and aroma,” Delfan added, “and can compete with any other saffron-producing province in the country.”

Saffron cultivation is not institutionalized in Lorestan

Another grower, Maryam Tahmasebi, farms saffron in Biranshahr, where 2,500 square meters of land produces around 1.5 kilograms a year.

Tahmasebi said sourcing saffron corms (the onion-like bulbs used to propagate the plant) used to be difficult, but new local suppliers have largely solved that problem. Saffron, she noted, needs relatively little water, which makes Lorestan’s climate well suited to growing it.

She attributed the province’s low cultivation rates to a lack of farmer education and the absence of any organized cultivation program. Despite Lorestan saffron’s high essential-oil quality, production remains limited, and she argued growers need financial support to expand the area under cultivation.

Good land management and sound agricultural practice, Tahmasebi added, would shorten the time it takes for the crop to become profitable.

She also pointed out a regulatory bottleneck: farmers aren’t permitted to set up their own packaging operations until they reach a minimum production quota, which she said effectively blocks smaller producers from exporting directly.

Saffron cultivation, she added, can also be a meaningful source of income for rural women.

The amount of saffron production in Lorestan is twice the national average

Karim Khademi, a researcher at the Lorestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, explained that saffron grows during autumn, winter, and early spring, then enters roughly four and a half months of summer dormancy — precisely the period, from early May through the end of summer, when most other crops need the most water.

Khademi noted that saffron is a perennial plant that doesn’t produce seed — effectively sterile — so the only way to propagate it is through its corms. The plant isn’t vulnerable to any particular disease or pest, he said, though wild boar, hedgehogs, rabbits, and mice can damage the crop.

He added that part of the growing global demand for saffron comes from interest in its aroma and flavor as a spice, along with ongoing research into possible mood-related benefits — though saffron is not a substitute for medical treatment or prescribed medication.

According to Khademi, testing has shown that every region of the province is suitable for saffron cultivation. While the national average yield is five kilograms per hectare, Lorestan’s fields have produced around ten kilograms per hectare — twice the national figure.

Saffron is graded into four quality tiers under Iran’s national standard — grade three, grade two, grade one, and “excellent” — and Lorestan’s saffron has tested at the excellent grade, Khademi said.

About 60 hectares of land in the province are currently under saffron cultivation, with Khorramabad recording the highest yields.

Because saffron cultivation is still relatively new to the province, packaging infrastructure hasn’t kept pace — a handful of packaging units currently operate as cooperatives. Khademi said the goal going forward is to expand both the cultivated area and packaging quality.

He added that the province’s governor’s office has responded positively in recent meetings, and that funding is expected to be allocated to encourage farmers to expand cultivation.

Saffron is offered in bulk in Lorestan

The deputy director of the extension department at Lorestan’s Agricultural Jihad Organization said training classes and workshops have been run across the province, including three conferences held in Khorramabad last year. Despite this outreach, little has changed on the ground — only about 40 people in the entire province currently cultivate saffron.

In the program’s first year, subsidies were made available to help farmers buy saffron corms, but because cultivation remains optional and still new to the region, no further credit or financing programs have been introduced since.

He noted that some producers still haven’t applied for packaging licenses, largely because so few farmers cultivate saffron at scale — as a result, most of the crop is sold in bulk rather than packaged.

A license has been issued for saffron packaging and processing industries in the province

The head of the Lorestan Agricultural Jihad Organization, Ishaq Taheri Moghaddam, said saffron production is concentrated in the province’s Zagros region, where yields are strong.

Referring to the challenges around branding Lorestan saffron, he added that a significant share of the country’s excellent, high-quality saffron is actually harvested in the province.

Production performance in the province is very strong, he said, but Lorestan saffron is still sold under the Mashhad brand. To address that, the Lorestan Agricultural Jihad Organization is working to increase production volume and establish a dedicated “Lorestan” brand for the crop.

He noted that over the past two years, the organization has taken concrete steps toward branding the province’s premium products, including issuing licenses for saffron packaging and processing operations.