Growers: The saffron harvesting campaign is late in Bulgaria

The first saffron crocuses usually appear at the beginning of October, but this year the flowering started timidly in the second week of the month. "For now, I don't have small bulbs, which depends on the fertile soil, we are already collecting the first licks and they are quite large, but the harvesting season is late," commented Fatme Ramadan for Agri.BG, which is a saffron producer from North-Eastern Bulgaria. She grows crocus on 32 decares, from which the most expensive spice in the world is obtained. "Saffron has been actively harvested for several days. The drought has a negative effect on us and we have to water literally before flowering in order to start the bulbs, and this trend has been going on for several years, as we didn't water before," commented Antonio Bonev, chairman of the Association of Saffron Growers in Bulgaria. 49 producers are members of the organization, and the area on which saffron crocus is grown is about 100 decares. Research is to be done on the ...