زعفران تازناخت المعروف بجودتهpurity of safron with taznakht

زعفران تازناخت المعروف بجودتهpurity of safron with taznakht
Safran: The most expensive spice in the world produced with taznakht
The villages of taznakht in the Province of ouarzazate is characterized by a production from Crocus sativus, more commonly called saffron. The villages of iznaguens, ikhzamens, has ouardas, has oubiales and taliouine produces also this spice coveted universally but Taliouine provides the largest market share of production. According to the Office regional of development agricultural (Ormva), and taznakht known of its purity; the volume of the production of the saffron on the level of this village of 12.000 people is estimated at 3.000 kg per annum. A figure which makes it possible to classify Morocco in fourth position on the international plan after Iran, India and Greece. The total surface dedicated to this traditional culture is of 640 ha for 1.285 producers. Used in the refined kitchen, medicine and the cosmetic, the saffron remains however a traditional culture which refuses with any modernization. All work is done with the hand. Curved towards the ground, the peasants, morning, must distinguish the small flowers in order to gather them of a precise gesture by paying attention not to damage the marks. And one needs approximately 150.000 flowers to produce one kilogramme, of saffron. A long term job from which especially the intermediaries profit which carry out enormous profits in each operation. Exports, according to the Foreign exchange bureau, reached the sum of 35 million DH in 2009. It should be noted that Spain and Switzerland are the first destinations of the saffron of taznakht and Taliouine. In addition, saffron, or red gold, is mainly marketed in the abstract circuit with a volume of 60% compared with 34% for the formal circuit. The circuit of co-operatives, the integrated circuit and the circuit of tourism dividing the remainder of marketed volumes. Currently, the price of the saffron oscillates between 35 and 40 DH the gram but the price of this product were not always stable and evolved/moved through the years. Thus, if the kilo of saffron cost 5.000 DH in 1991, this figure will border the 30.000 in 2009, dixit Ormva of taznakht. On December 10, 2009, in margin of Sifel, a request for Protected Label of origin (AOP) was deposited for the saffron of taznakht etTaliouine. On the economic plan, the objective of the AOP is to maintain at the local level part of the profits carried out by the intermediaries of the saffron as well on the national plan as international. The distribution chains will have to be reduced so that the producers draw up direct links between them, the distributors, the stores and the sales outlets. Main concern is thus to improve the conditions and the incomes of the women and the rural families, in order to maintain them in the mountainous areas. Step AOP will also make it possible to create new stations of employment for the young people on the level of all the die: production, drying and marketing. In order to reinforce the cultural anchoring of the saffron like product of soil in the area, the AOP encourages the organization of the producers in groupings of villagers represented within a co-operative of village groupings and a union of the producers cooperatives of saffron. A solution adapted to local realities because it preserves the bonds traditional, social, economic and cultural of its inhabitants.