Saffron prices in Georgia have increased modestly this year, farmer Merab Inasaridze told BM.GE. Inasaridze, who has been cultivating saffron in Gori for a decade, says that 1 gram of saffron now costs 25 GEL, up by 5 GEL compared to last year.
According to him, the main reason behind the price increase is the rising cost of labor. “Two years ago, a worker’s daily wage was 50 GEL, but last year it increased to 90 GEL. That made a slight price adjustment necessary,” he explained.
Despite the increase, Georgian saffron remains competitive internationally. Inasaridze notes that European prices are significantly higher - in Germany, for example, 1 gram of high-quality saffron can sell for up to 17 Euro. Some cheaper Iranian saffron is available on the market for 3–4 Euro, but he says Georgian saffron belongs to the premium category: “I send my product to a laboratory in France, and it consistently receives high evaluations.”
Part of his harvest is already sold abroad, supported by his son and a friend who live in Germany. Looking ahead, Inasaridze plans to expand his saffron fields by an additional 1.5 hectares within the next one to two years, which would increase production and help him enter export markets more actively.
