These farmers have a dream for the world’s most expensive spice, and it's rooted in Canadian soil

As golden hour settles over Avtar Dhillon’s farm in Abbotsford, B.C., rows of delicate purple flowers are in full bloom. 

Inside their petals grow crimson threads of the world’s most expensive spice — saffron. 

“[It’s] my dream to do something different for Abbotsford,” says Dhillon. 

The farmer’s labour of love began budding in 2021. He says he was the first to grow the ancient spice on a larger scale in B.C. — and only among a handful in the country. But shortly after his first successful crop, Dhillon was left heartbroken. 

The B.C. floods in November of that year devastated his farm, leaving nearly 250,000 crocus sativus, commonly known as saffron bulbs, under muddied water. Despite the loss, Dhillon says he remained committed to making Abbotsford the saffron capital of B.C. 

Four years later, the dream is flourishing once again. Dhillon has expanded his saffron farm, is working on new technology to make harvesting more efficient and has even inspired other farmers to grow and innovate with the spice, both in Abbotsford and beyond in Alberta and Ontario. 

“I feel excited,” says Dhillon, walking in late October through his 1.5-acre (0.6-hectare) crop, which is home to more than 500,000 saffron bulbs this year. 

But as he carefully plucks the flowers for harvest, Dhillon says he’s still facing a major challenge — getting his prized crop insured. It’s security he hopes to see soon for himself and other growers. 

“They [the provincial government] are not agreeing with me. If anything happens again, I don't have insurance,” said Dhillon. “Everyone is not comfortable when they [don’t] have insurance.” 

In a statement, the Ministry of Agriculture said while crop insurance is not currently available for emerging crops such as saffron, coverage can be considered if crops can prove they are “commercially and agronomically viable” in B.C. with enough production and marketing data. 

It also noted emerging crop growers are eligible to participate in AgriStability, a program that protects farmers from income declines due to things like poor weather and market conditions.

The ministry said it is aware of a few farmers growing saffron but said to its knowledge none are at the large commercial stage yet. 

Dhillon's wife, father and sister-in-law gather around a table carefully hand-picking the threads of saffron from the freshly harvested flowers. For them, the hours of effort each day are worth it — a single gram of their saffron sells for $50, Dhillon says.

To make the labour intensive process more efficient, Dhillon has hired more staff and teamed up with a designer to build equipment to plant the bulbs and harvest the spice.