PAMPORE, 29 December 2003 — “The world’s best saffron grows here,” reads a signpost in Indian Kashmir near a vast swathe of grey-brown land ringed by snow-covered mountains.
But that is little consolation for Shabir Ahmad Malik, a former saffron grower in the stunningly beautiful Himalayan region who now runs a gold business.
“Illegal imports from Iran have hit the Kashmir saffron industry so badly that many of us had to change our business,” Malik told Reuters.
Kashmiri saffron, known in old Kashmiri texts as lover’s spice, was once the toast of every gourmet kitchen in the country.
Astronomical prices failed to deter serious chefs from stocking up on Kashmiri saffron, which is considered the best in the world. The spice is used extensively in Mediterranean, Mexican and Indian cuisine.
But today, thousands of saffron growers in Kashmir have been forced to move to other businesses because cheaper imports from Iran are eating into their business.
Growers say Iranian saffron sells for 25,000 rupees ($548) a kg compared with 40,000 rupees for the Kashmiri spice, which growers say costs more because of its superior quality and a labor-intensive process of picking, drying and packing.
“Who will buy Kashmiri saffron?” asks grower Mohammad Yusuf, as he smokes a hubble-bubble pipe under a crimson chinar tree.
Business has also been hit by an unprecedented drought and neglect by the authorities because of a 14-year revolt in the region in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
According to the state’s agriculture minister, Abdul Aziz Zargar, saffron production in Kashmir plummeted from 17,300 kg in 1997 to 3,600 kg in 2001.
“Iranian saffron is sold on the Kashmiri brand name. It is sold not only in major Indian cities but in Kashmir also,” says G.M. Pampori, president of the Kashmir Saffron Growers Association.
Saffron has been grown in Kashmir since the Mughal period, which began in the 16th century when saffron bulbs — a species of crocus — were brought from Iran.
Cultivation is an elaborate and painstaking process: it takes about 170,000 purple flowers and many, many willow baskets to collect one kg of saffron.
On cold autumn mornings men, women and children in more than 200 villages in the Pampore area of southern Kashmir flock to the fields, pick the flowers and heap them into wicker baskets.
The bulbs of the Crocus sativa flower are sown on an estimated 17,000 hectares (42,500 acres) of well drained clay-loam land in May and June and the flower is harvested in November.
The flower’s reddish three-part stigmas are hand-picked and sun-dried before they find their way to market in December.
Authorities say that, despite the problems, Kashmir has the potential to produce 30,000 kg of saffron a year.
The Jammu and Kashmir government says it plans to launch a series of initiatives to help production and marketing of the crop, which sustains more than 100,000 people.
“The government has decided to take up the issue of saffron imports with the central government (in New Delhi). And we are soon launching programs for quality control and marketing and increase in production,” Zargar added.
India’s chewing tobacco industry and pharmaceutical firms are among leading buyers of Kashmiri saffron, which has several uses apart from flavoring ranging from religious offerings to medicinal cures.
“Of course, Kashmiri saffron is the best, but it has suffered a lot in the last decade and a half,” Masood Ahmad, a Kashmir university scientist, said.