The history of saffron planting in Iran goes back to more than 3,000 years. This expensive medicinal plant is known as the red gold or the desert gold. Due to its taste, color and aroma, it has many applications in the production of food, pharmaceutical and chemical products and is considered to be an expensive product due to the restriction of cultivation and production in some countries of the world.
Iran is the world's leading producer of saffron (3517 tons) with an average production of 90% of the total world production. In Iran, farmers in Khorasan Razavi, South and North Khorasan, Isfahan, Fars, Kerman and Yazd provinces are producing saffron more than other regions. Khorasan Razavi province produces more than 80 percent of the country's saffron. Given the strategic importance of saffron and its dependence on the income of a large part of the population in different regions of the country and its high potential for value for the country, serious attention is paid to this product and increased fundamental and applied research in related sciences, particularly processing, packaging, marketing and ultimately it requires export. In this regard, Saffron Research Institute of Torbat Heydarieh University, as the only specialized research institute in the field of saffron, has done this mission in cooperation with other authorities related to this field.
Torbat Heydarieh Saffron Research Institute, located on the southwest of Pishkouh Forest Park, was commissioned on May 24, 2007 to build the complex from the Credits of the Presidency. Finally, on November 21, 2012, with the completion of the construction project, the Institute building was ready for operation. The institute was closed by the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in March 2013 and formally handed over to Torbat Heydarieh University.