TEHRAN — Despite lower production, the quality of Iran’s saffron has been improved in the current Iranian year (ends March 20, 2007), noted head of Iran’s Saffron Export Fund.

Referring to the false and counterfactual allegations against Iranian saffron, Ali Shariati-Moqaddam said that parts of the negative propaganda is so illogical that customers of Iran’s saffron at the world markets are well aware of the motives of those behind them.

He referred to the recent visits of a number of Iranian saffron processing plants by some foreign ambassadors and economic officials from some embassies in Tehran and said the officials got a first hand opinion on the processing procedures at the plants and mostly approved of the quality of Iranian saffron.

The official also called for a revision of the international saffron quality certificates and emphasized the need for further supervision on the quality of the exported product while meeting the international standards in the field.

Coming second only to pistachios, saffron constitutes the nation’s most important non-oil export. Iran ranks first in the world production of the condiment, with 80 percent of the world yield. However, lack of modern processing and packaging factories have hindered the industry’s development as a profit-making business.