The biggest problem on the way to saffron

Weak marketing can cost Iranian saffron a large share of the value created after harvest, but “marketing” is not just advertising. The real work spans consistent quality, authenticity, traceability, useful packaging, market access, buyer relationships and a brand promise that survives from one batch to the next.

The headline reflects an argument made by Farzad Saharkhiz, identified in the archived report as a board member of the House of Industry. He called weak marketing the biggest problem on the way to saffron and said competitors were earning much of the industry’s income. His diagnosis remains worth examining, but several claims in the short original report need a more precise boundary.

What Farzad Saharkhiz said about Spain

Saharkhiz argued that debate over Spain versus Iran’s efforts to win market share missed the underlying issue. In his view, Spain had acted in an organised way over many years, applying scientific principles of market analysis and marketing to build a substantial position in the international saffron market.

That does not mean all saffron sold from Spain was grown there, nor that marketing alone explains trade. It points to a value-chain distinction: producing the crop and owning the final route to the customer are different activities.

A UNIDO diagnostic study of Iran’s saffron value chain found that Spain generated more added value from international saffron trade through commercial reputation, market presence, retail access and small-package exports. The report contrasted this with the historical concentration of Iranian exports in a few bulk-buying destinations that could re-export the product.

What “scientific marketing” should mean

The phrase should mean decisions based on evidence, not a decorative claim in a sales plan. A saffron exporter needs to know who buys, why they buy, which product form they need, what quality and documentation the market requires, what the customer will pay, and whether that customer returns.

• Segment the market: a restaurant distributor, industrial ingredient buyer, specialist retailer and gift customer need different formats.
• Define the product: grade, cut, origin, moisture, package size and intended use must be repeatable.
• Measure buyer behaviour: compare conversion, reorder rate, price per kilogram, complaints and retained customers—not only impressions or exhibition attendance.
• Test the message: learn whether buyers respond to origin, sensory quality, traceability, convenience or another verified benefit.
• Protect the promise: authenticity and quality control have to match what the package and sales team say.

This makes marketing inseparable from production and processing. A beautiful package cannot rescue inconsistent aroma, contamination, weak seals or an origin claim the supplier cannot trace.

The evidence that Spain is an important route

Trade data confirm the relationship, although individual years change. The World Bank’s WITS presentation of UN Comtrade data records Iran exporting 42,578 kg of saffron worth about $44.22 million to Spain in 2022. Spain was Iran’s second-largest declared destination by value in that dataset.

The same data record Spain exporting saffron to the world. Gross trade figures cannot tell us which individual shipment was repacked Iranian saffron, blended material, domestic Spanish production or another flow. They do demonstrate why the issue cannot be reduced to a story of two countries growing the same crop.

Bulk saffron is not the entire problem

Bulk saffron has legitimate business uses. Food manufacturers, established packers and distributors may need larger lots, and efficient bulk packaging can reduce material and handling. The commercial risk appears when the producer has little direct market information, weak bargaining power or no claim on the brand and customer relationship that create downstream margin.

Moving into small packages is also not automatically profitable. It brings design, compliance, inventory, local-language labelling, distribution, returns and retailer costs. The right question is where the exporter can perform reliably and retain value—not whether every gram should leave Iran in a retail jar.

Quality integrity comes before promotion

International trust is an asset only when the supply chain protects it. Saharkhiz said Iranian saffron was uniquely welcomed outside the country and connected that reception with trust, although the final sentence in the archived translation is incomplete. Trust must be earned batch by batch through accurate identity, safe handling and honest claims.

This is now stated directly in official work. In November 2025, the FAO and Iran held a national saffron value-chain workshop covering improved production, post-harvest handling, safety, traceability, modern marketing and digital branding. The programme treated quality integrity from cultivation to export as essential to international confidence.

Authenticity testing matters for the same reason. If poor or adulterated material enters the channel, no campaign can confine the damage to one seller. Confidence in Iranian saffron is a shared industry resource.

Saffron is more than medicine abroad

The original report said saffron’s extensive medicinal properties—calling it antidepressant and anticancer—meant it was mostly used as medicine in foreign countries. That is not supported as a description of international use. Saffron is traded for food, flavour, colour, cultural dishes, cosmetics, supplements and research; the mix varies by market.

Human trials have investigated standardised saffron preparations for mood, but that does not turn culinary saffron into an antidepressant medicine. Anticancer research remains largely preclinical and cannot support a cancer-treatment claim. Export marketing must distinguish a food, supplement, cosmetic ingredient and regulated medicine rather than borrowing the strongest language from one category for another.

Saffron is not merely decorative on the Iranian table

Saharkhiz’s statement that saffron has “only a decorative aspect” on the Iranian table reads as rhetoric about underdeveloped product use. Taken literally, it is inaccurate. Saffron is a functional ingredient in Iranian rice, stews, sweets, drinks and ceremonial foods, contributing aroma, flavour and colour.

Domestic culinary knowledge can strengthen marketing when it is translated usefully. Clear brewing instructions, portion formats and recipes can reduce the uncertainty of a customer who has never cooked with saffron. That is product education, not empty promotion.

Where more value can be retained

There is no single missing step. Value is created at several points:

• growers produce clean, mature stigmas and protect them during harvest;
• processors dry, sort and store the crop consistently;
• laboratories verify quality and authenticity where required;
• packers preserve aroma and make the product convenient;
• exporters manage documentation and reliable delivery;
• marketers explain a truthful, useful difference to a defined buyer;
• customer service turns a first order into a relationship.

An isolated producer may struggle to fund every function. Cooperatives, shared laboratories, common standards and specialist exporters can help—provided responsibilities, incentives and traceability are clear.

Because saffron is a key export product, the Iranian saffron marketing problem reaches back to saffron cultivation and the saffron harvest: weak price transmission limits economic prosperity in growing communities. Calling it only a saffron problem is also too narrow; the same route-to-market discipline matters to Iranian businesses developing foods, cosmetics and researched products from medicinal plants.

The biggest problem is a disconnected value chain

Weak marketing is a visible symptom, but the deeper problem is disconnection between the Iranian saffron field and the final customer. When growers, processors, exporters and brands do not share quality data or market feedback, an intermediary is better placed to understand demand and capture margin.

The practical answer is organised action of the kind Saharkhiz admired: protect authenticity, standardise the product, choose markets deliberately, give customers a useful format and measure whether the promise earns repeat business. That is how scientific marketing becomes an operating system for Iranian saffron rather than a slogan.