Iran reports increase in Saffron exports to Afghanistan

Iranian media, citing an official source in the country, have reported that Iran’s saffron exports to Afghanistan have tripled.

Rokna News Agency cited Rouhollah Latifi, an official from Iran’s Rural Cooperation Organization, as saying on Saturday, May 11, that Iran’s saffron exports to Afghanistan have increased by about 198 per cent.

The Iranian official, noting that Iran’s saffron exports reached 221 tons to 55 countries directly in 2023, emphasized, “With the increase in exports in terms of weight and the high price of this product, Iran’s international markets have decreased by 15.7 per cent.”

According to Latifi, Afghanistan now meets its 50-ton saffron demand from India through Afghanistan’s saffron.

The Iranian official has attributed the decrease in Iran’s direct exports to India to the joint agreement between Afghanistan and India, under which saffron from Afghanistan is exported to India without customs duties.

Meanwhile, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Afghanistan in 2023, Afghanistan exported 67 tons of saffron worth $49 million to 9 different countries.

Moreover, Iran’s largest saffron exporting countries have been mentioned as the UAE, China, Spain, Afghanistan, Italy, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and France.

So far, the officials of the Taliban government have not responded to the claims made by the Iranian official.

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