(The following list gives the location of the saffron-producing region in the current year; the country that produced the largest amount of saffron this year also receives the largest amount of the nation’s gold, silver, jewels, and gems, with the second-largest size of those things at 19 million ounces. The country with the greatest amount of gold in its reserves, by far, is Pakistan.)
1. India
2. China
3. United Arab Emirates
4. Nigeria
5. South Africa, and the rest of the Gold-producing nations listed in the second column.
6. Brazil, where the country’s production of saffron has soared by more than a third compared to 2014.
7. South Africa
8. Ghana, an African nation that produces the highest quantities of saffron in the world.
9. Sri Lanka
10. Pakistan, an Islamic nation where the saffron plant was started by a Muslim in the mid-19th century and is the only country where there are currently two saffron producers; the other, in Mauritania, is being set on fire by a mob of people upset over reports that a woman in the country is selling the flowers. [The South Asian nation isn’t alone; India, South Africa and Ghana also produce the highest quantities of saffron.]
11. Bangladesh
12. Morocco, which was already in the top 10, for being the largest producer in a country where a total of 4 million pounds of the plant are produced each year (but is now at 11.9 million pounds because of a lack of space on the plant in the past 25 years).
13. Egypt
14. Libya, where production of saffron is expected to remain stable because of a lack of capital and the recent government shutdown (the plant will reopen when the government pays the debts.)
15. Nigeria
16. Argentina
17. South Africa
18. Ghana
19. Algeria, Algeria’s major producer of saffron flowers—they had a shortage earlier in the year—but which is also producing more than any other country in the world for saffron and saffron products. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has given permission for the plant to be placed on fire by a mob. The country has been called the third-largest producer of plant.
20. Tunisia