Growers fear a perfect storm for a tradition that has long bound rural communities together
sharp wind shunts clouds across the low and endless skies of La Mancha as Carlos Fernández stoops to pluck the last mauve flowers of the season from the cold earth. Their petals, which stain his index finger and thumb blue, enclose an almost weightless prize whose crimson threads are treasured inBut despite the prices his crop fetches, and the weighty comparisons those prices inevitably invite, the life of a saffron grower is not without its trials, travails and frustrations.
A century ago, Spain was the largest saffron producer in the world, plucking, toasting and selling 140 tonnes grown on 13,000 hectares of land a year. By the 1970s, annual production had fallen to 70 tonnes. “The big landowners would give their workers a bit of land where they could grow saffron to be used as a kind of currency,” he says.
“We’re being held back by the idiosyncrasies of the sector itself,” says Fernández. “What we’re trying to do now is bring about a change and a transition so we’re not left behind in this folk tradition, which is where I think we are now. As producers, we can’t grow enough saffron to meet our customers’ demand all year round and that means it’s not a stable business.
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