Heroin or saffron: who wins?

The price of heroin is sometimes lower than that of pure saffron. Cost price 20 -25,000 euros/kg. Its scarcity and price make saffron very interesting to commit fraud with. For organised crime it is excellently suited to fiddle with. And: anyone is allowed to carry a kilogramme of saffron in the boot of his car without a problem. Heroin is a different matter. It could get you four years of board and lodging from the government.

For a kilogramme of saffron you need 150,000 petals of a specific kind of crocus, which require a land area of 2,000 m2. After picking, the much smaller pistils and stamens are removed from small saffron crocus and manually sorted and dried. This is all very labour intensive. Dyed corn thread or safflower costs 10 euros/kg with virtually 0 euros of production cost; a much-used alternative or adulterant.

As soon as a product is both scarce and sought-after, risks increase. In the Netherlands there is a factory that owes its existence partly to Chinese who only want one type of baby food: that with a stamp ‘Made in Holland’ on the packaging. There is substantially less demand for the same product made at a location in China. Why? Because that stamp – Made in Holland – stands for safety and reliability. Just uttering the word ‘melamine’ in China gives parents nightmares. Children are valuable, offering them safety is a universal feeling.

So, Dutch food producers: start working with the motto: ‘the Netherlands is a leader in the field of food safety’. There is a world to be won.

www.bessels.com

Herman Bessels is architect BNA at Bessels architekten & ingenieurs B.V.