Saffron, a corm-producing plant (Crocus sativus) native to the Ancient World, having purple or white flowers with orange stigmas, is used for centuries as flower tea, as spices, traditional herbal medicine, also for coloring purposes.

The most expensive spice is normally sold by gram. Since each flower only has three stigmas, it takes an acre of land and hundreds of thousands of flowers to produce one pound of saffron threads.

China started its import of saffron from Min Dynasty via Tibet from India centuries ago. However the large-scale plantation for saffron just began from 1965 separately in Nanking, Shanghai, and some other China cities. As they are of much closer latitude with saffron planting countries like Iran, Spain, and Morocco, and taking the new production form of “Picking Flowers Indoor, Breeding Bulbs Infield”, the plantation of saffron is now popular in China east coast.

With more medical values testified, and people`s improvement of living standard in recent years, there`re now more requirements for saffron. Nanking Saffron Farmers Cooperative is a specialized one which puts emphasis on planting and marketing saffron products. The Farmers Cooperative is managed and served under a board of directors, aiming at instructing farmers in new methods of cultivating and forging ahead with enhancement of competitiveness through production of high quality Chinese saffron. The Cooperative manages saffron`s production under the mode of "cooperative + base + GAP", enters into 1:1 contracts with local farmers before their plantation, dried and processed by the cooperative. Therefore, Nanking can guarantee the quality of its saffron products because the Cooperative is the producer and the marketer as well.

The Cooperative has received lots of awards from the government, such as "Agricultural Products` Best Seller", "Agricultural Products` Direct Sales", “Organic & Pollution-free Agricultural Products` Plantation Base”.

In China saffron market, China origin saffron is comparatively higher than most imported saffron, as it has following advantages. We therefore welcome interested foreign customers to verify our saffron and come into good cooperation with us on mutual benefits.