STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 11 April 2013

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9. Red Gold: Saffron Cooperative Thrives amid Greek Crisis

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/saffron-farming-cooperative-thrives-in-greece-despite-crisis-a-893527.html


The delicate stigma of the saffron crocus is what farmers are after. It sells for up to 2,000 euros ($2,600) a kilo.


Nikolaos Patsiouras, 57, is the president of of the saffron cooperative in Krokos, which has helped make the community prosperous with the expensive spice. "There is something magical about saffron," he says.

In these hard times, it's hard to find a place in Greece where people still look forward to the future, except perhaps in the country's far north, in Krokos on the Macedonian plain.

Nikolaos Patsiouras is one of the satisfied residents in the town of about 5,000 people, which is surrounded by rocky fields. "We have no debt, our exports are doing well and we are healthy," he says proudly. "We are pioneers for Europe."
They used to call him "little German boy" when he was a child, because of his blonde hair and blue eyes. His hair is now silver-gray, and the 57-year-old is the president of the local cooperative of about 1,000 saffron producers, the only one of its kind in the country. The area around Krokos is world-famous for its red saffron, known as "red gold," the rarest and most precious spice on earth.

Krokos produces 1.5 to 2 tons of saffron a year, which sells for up to €2,000 ($2,600) a kilo. The farmers export the highly delicate stigmas of the saffron crocus to the United States, France, Germany, Canada and Australia. With world production at about 200 tons, Greece's share is relatively small. But about 90 percent of total production comes from Iran, which is having export difficulties because of its nuclear policy and Western sanctions.