The history of Tas-Saff

Terry & Nicky arrived in Tasmania after making a sea-change from Sydney. Giving up their secure jobs was made easier by their purchase of a small cottage on 3 acres in the idyllic Huon Valley in the state's south, famed for fruit production.

Being foodies, it was while having friends over for a visit from Sydney, that they decided to prepare paella, and found it difficult to source saffron locally. Eventually they tracked down a small 150mg jar for $14.95 and were stunned at just how prized the spice was.

Curosity prevailed and the couple found that Tasmania had ideal conditions for growing saffron, and that the vast majority of saffron sold in Australia was imported.

Terry and Nicky sensed the opportunity of replacing imported produce with home grown saffron. This led to a fantastic love affair with the tiny red threads that has spanned almost two decades.

Recovering from once in a century flooding which almost wiped out their entire crop in only their third year, Tas-Saff has risen to become the most successful saffron producers in Australia.

Network of growers

Tas-Saff have slowly built up a strong network of growers to supply demand for their products with over 50 separate growers contributing to Tas Saff products. To put this in perspective, and to illustrate the labour intensive nature of the process, then for the annual combined Tas-Saff crop, the stigmas or threads from millions of flowers have to be hand-picked, measured, tested, weighed and bottled.

No wonder saffron is more expensive than gold gram for gram. It is easily the single most expensive spice known to man.