Growers fear a perfect storm for a tradition that has long bound rural communities together.
While that small-scale, low-tech approach may have kept saffron production going over the past few decades, it has also left it on the edge of extinction.
Higher temperatures and less rainfall mean that flowering happens later and later each year as the plants wait for things to cool down. Yields are also fluctuating. The average yield in 2015 was around 650 kilograms, rising to a peak in 2018 of 915 kilograms. Since then, there has been a gradual decline—750 kilos in 2019, 625 kilos in 2020, and 345 kilos in 2021.
Plummeting production in Spain has also sent buyers to overseas competitors that have the capacity to meet demand. Add to that mechanization that would allow robots to extract the threads from the flowers, and Fernández sees no reason why there couldn’t be 5,000 hectares of crocuses producing 25 metric tons of saffron in 10 years’ time.
“If there was no saffron, we wouldn’t be here together like this,” she says. “Everyone can talk about their problems or their happinesses here. It helps us help each other. It’s a kind of therapy where people can talk and ask for help if they need it.”
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