From Ambani (and others) FirstPost, April 30:
The price of saffron has crossed Rs 5 lakh per kilo – as much as 50 grammes of gold. The development came after India shut down the Attari-Wagah border for trade in response to the terror attack in south Kashmir, which left 26 dead
Saffron prices are through the roof – and it has to do with the Pahalgam attack.
According to several media reports, the price of saffron has crossed Rs 5 lakh per kilo.
The development came after India shut down the Attari-Wagah border for trade in response to the terror attack in south Kashmir which left 26 dead.
The Resistance Force (TRF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, has taken responsibility for the attack.
Saffron prices skyrocket
As per Business Today, India’s move has cut-off the flow of saffron – the world’s most expensive spice – from Afghanistan.
A kilo of saffron now costs as much as 50 grams of gold.
The price of saffron has surged 10 per cent over the past four days.
Prior to the attack and the closure of the border, prices of the highest quality saffron ranged between Rs 4.25 lakh and Rs 4.50 lakh per kilo, as per Economic Times.
As per Business Today, there are three major varieties of saffron.
These are:
Mongra (Kashmir) – A deep crimson, with the strongest flavour. Is also the most expensive
Lacha (Kashmir) – slightly lower strength saffron
Pushal (Afghan, Iran) – lighter strands of saffron with some yellow. Cheaper than other varieties.
Saffron from India is the only saffron in the world grown at an altitude of 1,600 metres to 1,800 metres above mean sea level (AMSL).
According to Economic Times, the saffron from Kashmir is thought to be top quality.
But Kashmir produces just six to seven tonnes of saffron per year, while the rest is imported from Afghanistan and Iran, which is the world’s largest saffron producer.
Afghanistan saffron is known for its intense colour and aroma, while Iranian saffron is thought to be the cheaper option.
However, the price of Iranian saffron has also increased by five per cent.
India, on the other hand, consumes around 55 tonnes of saffron every year, as per Business Today.
Time for Kashmiri saffron to step up
As per The Hindu, Kashmiri saffron is grown in Pampore, Budgam, Pulwama, Srinagar and Jammu’s Kishtwar district.
Saffron cultivation in Kashmir dates back to 500 BC, as per India International Kashmir Saffron Trading Center.
Kashmiri saffron was given granted Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2020 – making it the only GI tagged spice in the world.
....MORE
Previously:
December 2023 - Commodities: "Saffron supplies dry up as climate change shrivels Iran’s ‘desert gold’"
In March of 2019 we had a similar story but with a crazy twist:
Commodities: The World's Most Valuable Spice May Be In Terminal Decline
This
article was published February 13, that is, it was written before the
Pakistani terrorists hit India on one border and Iran on the other*,
which just reinforced a major point of the story....
Consulting our second-favorite source of long price-series, Gregory Clark's
the years 1200-1914 using 26 component series: wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas,
beans, potatoes, hops, straw, mustard seed, saffron, hay, beef, mutton, pork,
bacon, tallow, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, wool, firewood, timber, cider, and
honey. I also construct sub-series for arable, pasture and wood products. The
main innovation is in using a consistent method to form series from existing
published sources. But fresh archival data is also incorporated. The implications
of the movements of these series for agrarian history are explored.
we see the first appearance of saffron prices in the year 1265 at 11.09 shillings/lb.
That same year Clark gives a price for wheat of 0.47 shillings/bushel so saffron was exceedingly expensive: one lb. of saffron costing as much as 23.6 bushels of wheat.
That's on page 36 of the 109 page PDF.
Fortunately for saffron lovers the price dropped to 4.39 shillings/lb. [12 oz., see below] in the year 1286.
The
next big price move was from 4.00 shillings/lb. in the year 1348 to 18
shillings/lb. in 1351 which sure looks like the signature of the Black
Death.
If one is interested, the big daddy of price series' is "A
History Of Agriculture And Prices In England, From The Year After The
Oxford Parliament (1259) To The Commencement Of The Continental War
(1793)"
—J. E. Thorold‐Rogers, 7 volumes, 1866-1887.
Thorold-Rogers points out that saffron was cultivated in England and among other fun facts:
- Page 375
Saffron was largely cultivated in England, especially in the south-east, but it will be convenient as before to deal with this article when comment is made on spices.
-
Page 659
Saffron. It is convenient to deal witji this article here, though it was not unfrequently of English growth, as the accounts specify. This drug or spice is nearly as common in the accounts as pepper is, I have estimated it by the apothecaries' pound of twelve ounces, by which, as the internal evidence of the entries proves, it was always sold. Our ancestors believed that the drug was a protective or prophylactic against the plague, and probably the price rose and fell as those who could purchase the article were alarmed at the contingency of a visitation from the deadly and dreaded disease which was from time to time endemic in England after the year 1349. I cannot, however, trace such an cflTcct on the price of saffron during the years 1477-8-9, i486, 1508, 1521. 1545. 1555-6. "577. and 1579, io each of which years some one account or the other (see Notes, Political and Social, u u 3
-
Page 660
The price of saffron, before the general rise occurred, s highest in 1531-40, one of the decades in which foreign spico are so dear. Saffron was never, I imagine, imported fnw the East. But it doubtlessly was from south-eastern Europe and may have been indirectly affected by any cause Kbid made other spices dear. It does not rise in price to an)tliii| like the same extent, after 1541, that other articles do, ti increase in money value being under fifty per cent. NordM it seem to have been so extensively used in later times.
-
Page 660
Saffron was grown in England, especially in the eastcR counties, Harrison tells a story to the effect that in one yol there was an exceedingly plentiful crop of the article, and tMt the growers, embarrassed by abundance, vented their discontett in a coarse and profane comment, and that thereupon tb^ were visited with a general scarcity of the article. I haiB found saffron designated as English in 1467, and bought ^ parently at a cheap rate. In 1557 some is bought which il designated as best, and in 1499 the Grantchcstcr safTrcnground, belonging to King's College, is let at a rental i 28j. 4^. a year. This must have been a plot which "tm stocked with the bulbs. It is very probably the case that th cheaper saffron was of English growth. I find no infonnatioi as to the origin of foreign supplies.
