Saffron is known as the most expensive spice in the world: 1 kg costs around 10,000$.
Just for reference, the second place is Vanilla costs around 1000$ for 1 kg.
But why is it so expansive?
First of all, it is derived from a very specific flower named "Crocus Sativus". This flower is most commonly found in Iran, and indeed the origin of most export is Iranian.
The procedure of harvesting, sorting, cleaning is manual, and requires many experienced hands.
Every flower has only 3 threads. To produce 1kg of Saffron it takes roughly 150,000 flowers. To pick 150,000 flowers 40 hours of labor are needed...
In addition, the "Crocus Sativus" flowers bloom for only 6 weeks a year, and very sensitive to weather changes.
However, from a personal view, nobody needs 1kg of Saffron.
2-3 threads will make your dish colorful and uniquely tasty.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron
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