To increase the income of farmers, produce and export companies, and improve the quality of organic and ISO-certified saffron, the Hand by Hand organization has conducted a saffron development project with a cost of 1.2 million USD in Afghanistan.

$3 million will be invested into the local agricultural sector by three private companies. Laghman officials said.

Local officials said that, saffron processing company in Balkh province has provided job opportunities for nearly two hundred women.

Afghan authorities want to provide farmers with an alternative means of income, other than growing opium, by turning to the world’s most expensive spice.

At a sprawling government agricultural research farm in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, workers are now picking tiny purple flowers.

Iranian companies, which trade saffron from Afghanistan, return foreign exchange from exporting it to Iran, an official of the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture Jihad Department of Medical Plants said.

An Afghan businessman has invested USD 2 million to open a saffron processing factory in western Herat province.