![]() "The smuggling of any product harms the healthy commercial activity of the country because the demand for companies working within the legal framework is transferred to this irregular sector and prices are reduced," said Shariatí, who is also responsible for the largest saffron processing and packaging company in Iran, Novin Saffron, based in the northeastern city of Mashad.Ībout Afghanistan, he added that in that country only 17 to 20 tons of "red gold" are produced, but "there the saffron that arrives from Iran is packed as if it was of Afghan origin and it is exported to different countries of the world like India and USA". With an annual production of about 500 tons, Iranian saffron is equivalent to more than 90% globally, but farmers and exporters do not get as much profit as they should. Only between March 2019 and March 2020 (the year 1398 in the Persian calendar), 50 tons of Iranian saffron were smuggled into Afghanistan, according to Shariatí who called this situation a "serious threat" to the local market for this exquisite product. ![]() ![]() The also president of the board of directors of the Saffron Export Development Fund explained that previously the saffron bulb was already being smuggled to Afghanistan to be cultivated there, but in the last two years, as a result of the sanctions, this illegal trade is being carried out with the flower's own threads. AP/EBRAHIM NOROOZI-Iranian farm workers separate crimson stigmas from purple flowers in the courtyard of a house on the outskirts of the city of Torbat Heydariyeh in south-eastern Iran "The existing foreign currency laws in the country have caused to be smuggled into Afghanistan and exported from there," Shariati said about the current situation of "red gold," of which Iran is the world's biggest producer. " The unilateral sanctions on the Iranian economy have had a very negative effect on the activity of producers and exporters in the agricultural sector due to the limitations on foreign currency transactions," lamented Ali Sharyatí, president of the Agriculture Commission of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, in statements to Efe.Īdded to this is the consequent devaluation of the national currency, the rial, which led the Iranian authorities to apply a restrictive regulation on foreign exchange, detrimental to exporters, some of whom have opted for smuggling to increase their income. The obstacles created to the transport system and banking transactions for the export of Persian products, including saffron, are linked to the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran in 2018, after Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement. Iranian saffron is under serious threat as a result of US sanctions, which have led to this valuable spice, known as "red gold", being smuggled into Afghanistan.
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