Inside the UAE’s first saffron farm

Inside the UAE’s first saffron farm

Touted as the world’s most expensive spice, growing saffron is considered a tough task to master, requiring cooler temperatures — and to picture that in the middle of a large stretch of desert is akin to watching a paradox come to life.

To find out more, we ventured into a facility in the middle of the Sharjah desert, to visit the Veggitech farm in Al Zubair, where preparations were in full force for the first-ever saffron harvest in the UAE.

“We overtook this farm only last year, in April 2021, when it was basically a barren land, with just one greenhouse,” says Masood Hashim, group CEO, SNASCO Holding — Veggitech’s parent company — while walking us to the control room where saffron corms were being cultivated. “We also have four other farms, one of which is right opposite this facility, and is currently under construction. It will soon be used to grow strawberries.”

Hyper-controlled environment

As we swiftly made our way inside the indoor farm, wrapped in blankets, we were warned by the staff that the temperatures would drop once we went in.

Putting our shoes through the automatic shoe cover dispensers, placed just outside the door, we were ready to deep dive into the