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What are the major trends and market size of Saffron in the uk?
Hello,
Thank you for your question on the major trends and market size of saffron in the UK. The short version is that in 2011, UK imported saffron worth around $5.3 Million and exported saffron worth around 1.79 Million.
Below you can find a deep dive in to my findings.
METHODOLOGY
I have searched academic databases, Industry reports and Trusted media sites to find the major trends and market size of Saffron in UK. Up-to-date data on the market size of saffron is not available free of cost. Import and export figures from 2005 to 2011 was found and are given below.
OVERVIEW
As of 2012, the global market for saffron was estimated at $660 million. Iran is the largest producer of saffron. Nearly 90-95% of the crocus flowers used to produce saffron are grown in Iran.
Saffron is considered as one of the trendiest flavour in 2016 based on the number of pinterest searches. It saw around 20% increase in saved searches compared to 2015 indicating the rising significance and popularity of the spice amongst the British.
British are also experimenting with cultivating Saffron owing to the lucrative prices that Saffron fetch. Saffron is very expensive owing to the labour intensive process involved in extracting it from the crocus flower. Stigmas from 250,000 crocus flower is extracted manually to yield 1 kg of saffron. It takes around 40 hours to extract one kg of saffron.
Below, I am stating the available information on the market size and trends of Saffron in the UK.
MARKET SIZE
Up-to-date market size of UK's saffron market is available on purchase of report from Future Market Insights titled Saffron Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2016-2026. The freely available information shows the export and import statistics of saffron in USD from 2005 to 2011. Data from Saffronomics estimates average price of saffron as USD 2000. Using this information, export and import quantity of saffron has been estimated. It is given below.
2005: $584,241 ~292 kg
2006: $561,022 ~280kg
2007: $11,43,381 ~ 571kg
2008: $11,77,085 ~588kg
2009: $12,53,473 ~626kg
2010: $12,83,527 ~641kg
2011: $17,93,208 ~896kg
2005: $1,490,873 ~745kg
2006: $1,841,966 ~920kg
2007: $3,254,129 ~1627kg
2008: $4,690,078 ~2345kg
2009: $6,326,455 ~3163kg
2010: $6,419,559 ~3209kg
2011: $5,351,054 ~2675kg
TRENDS
- Saffron is gaining popularity and was declared as the trendiest flavour of 2016 based on the pinterest searches.
- Dedicating a lot of land for cultivating saffron has led to loss of land surface in Europe, which has in turn led to corresponding genetic erosion. Conventional breeding methods do not work because of the sterility in C. sativus L plant. Hence, biotech breeding approaches may be required to increase its genetic variability.
- Large scale fraud is happening in the sales and marketing of saffron. Package labels are often misspelt and consumers are misled. In 2011, an amateur cook in UK purchased 10 brands of saffron and sent it to lab for analysis. It was found that in these packed saffron sold, other parts of crocus ranged between 40-90%. Some of the top quality saffron had just around 10% actual saffron and the rest was adulterants.
- Sourcing saffron from Kashmir, India, a British-Indian Mahbir Thukral launched food brand Mahbir Premium Indian Saffron which sells 100% pure red stigma tip saffron in gift boxes and ready-to-eat food infused with the spice like Belgian milk chocolate, apple jam and marmalade. The retail price of 100 gm chocolate infused with saffron is set at $5.52 in UK.
CONCLUSION
Saffron is gaining popularity in the UK. The farmers are trying their hand at producing it in UK itself instead of depending on imports from Iran and India. Influenced by Mediterranean travels, chefs are also increasingly incorporating saffron in their preparations.
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