The farm company "Saffron Lyubimovsky", located in the Kherson village of Lyubimovka, today is the leader of Ukraine in the cultivation and production of elite spices. It's about saffron.

This year, Lyubovtsy exported their fragrant crops to the shelves of Azerbaijan and the UK. Such information was shared with journalists by the owner of the farm - Oleg Demchenko.

According to Oleg, last year he and his assistants gathered a two-hectare saffron plantation from a saffron plantation - more than five kilograms of saffron. This year, volumes increased, as Demchenko expanded his land to 4 hectares.

“Many assured me that there would probably be problems with the implementation of saffron. - says Oleg. - I will add that one gram of this spice costs about 5 dollars. But I never encountered implementation problems. Because all over the world the demand for this fragrant product is only growing. And in Ukraine too. ”

The other day, a small batch of saffron from a Kherson farm went to the UK. Acquainted with the Ukrainian product, the British signed an agreement on the export of saffron. We managed to conclude a similar contract with Azerbaijani buyers.

According to Demchenko, today there is a sad trend - dishonest entrepreneurs actively fake saffron and sell it exorbitantly as a high-quality product.

“Often, saffron is given out as marigold flowers tinted with food pigment,” says Oleg. - Or they soak the real saffron in vegetable oil to increase the weight of the product and receive double payment from inexperienced customers. I add that saffron is a spice that, if used economically, can be stored in housewives for decades. Meanwhile, vegetable oil, which is impregnated with falsified saffron, will bitter over time, which greatly affects the taste of the product. ”

In order not to fall for the bait of crooks, Oleg says, one must remember that saffron soaked in oil, if put on a sheet of white paper and crushed, will leave a greasy oil mark. A high-quality “king of spices” does not leave such traces.