Iranian Saffron Farmers Protected by Supportive Market Mechanism: Deputy Minister
Hossein Shirzad, who is also the chief executive officer of the Central Organization for Rural cooperatives of Iran (CORC) informed on purchasing saffron with supportive prices.
Referring to the achievements of CORC in the last year on facilitating of saffron transactions in Iran agricultural commodity exchange, he said that the value chain of saffron provided 200,000 occupations directly and indirectly. The majority of Iran saffron is cultivated by small scale farmers on more than 114000-hectare saffron farms located in deprived rural areas.
"Definitely the small scale saffron farmers need strategic supporting to be empowered enough to sell their crops on the fair price basis," the official asserted.
Confirming that saffron is a high-value crop, he said saffron exporting in 2018 has generated income amounting more than 351 million dollars, adding that it is anticipated the saffron production will fetch to 500 tones that are an impressive record. However, taking supportive measures to protect farmers against price falls due to excess production is necessary.
"Good precipitation, providing extension and education services to farmers and technical supporting of farmers has led to a high yield of saffron in the current cropping year. CORC is going to support farmers against price fluctuation by adopting legal and operational policies." He added.
Meanwhile, Shirzad said that contract farming, development of standard storages and organic farming are the new services that are provided by CORC to boost saffron business.