Coronavirus Australia: Growers of world’s richest crop hit by COVID, buoyed by hefty saffron harvest

Saffron growers have been hard hit by COVID-19, but there is optimism buoyed by a hefty harvest.

Nicky Noonan of Tas-Saff, left, and farm worker Sally Brown harvest saffron at Glaziers Bay in southern Tasmania. Picture: Peter Mathew

Growers of Australia’s most valuable crop by weight, saffron, have been hard hit by COVID-19 but there is optimism amid the flourish of purple and red that marks the current harvest.

While revenue is down 50 per cent for key growers, due to coronavirus impacts, they are confident of survival, thanks to supermarket contracts and some recent help from above: good rain in saffron stronghold Tasmania.

This has produced much heavier-than-usual stigma — the red threads so sought after as a spice globally — providing more bang for buck from each flower. For a crop valued at about $30,000 per kilo, it is more than small change.

“It is a strong harvest — last year we had more flowers to process but it would take double the amount of flowers to get the same weight of stigma,” said Nicky Noonan, co-founder of largest producer, Tas-Saff, in Tasmania’s Huon Valley.

“So our weight and our quality is right up there this year. We are really, really happy.”

Combined with ongoing national contracts to supply Coles and Woolworths, the hefty harvest is a lifeline.

The family firm lost 55 per cent of its revenue from the closure of restaurants and cafes, its cellar door, and Hobart’s Salamanca Market, as well as from the collapse of exports to Vietnam, China and Hong Kong.

“What we have left is the major supermarkets and our own online sales — that’s it,” Ms Noonan said. “If we didn’t have that we’d be in trouble … We can get through this.”

She and son Patrick required JobKeeper support, while the business — which pioneered saffron production in the southern hemisphere 30 years ago this month — had applied for state COVID-19 business grants.

The business does its own manufacturing and packaging, including of products including saffron tea, vodka and gin.

It had been forced to cut back on casual pickers to minimise the risks of infection.

This increased the challenge of the harvest, which involves pouncing on the flowers when they open early in the morning after sustained sunshine. “I believe we are about to peak this weekend,” she said.

The low-growing flower, known as the “flower of the sun”, is picked and the three-pronged red stigma removed for dehydration.

Saffron’s extraordinary value per kilogram does not make the estimated 50 growers in Tasmania, NSW and Victoria rich.

“It’s a lot of work to make one kilo,” Ms Noonan said.