Inside the UAE's first saffron farm

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 world of crocus sativus (also known as saffron crocus) — the purple-coloured flowers through which saffron is obtained.

The temperatures inside dropped to 12 degrees centigrade, which is the optimal night-time temperature required by the saffron corms or ‘bulbs’ to cultivate the flowers. “The daytime temperature can go up to 17-20 degrees centigrade,” mentions Ali Abbasi, one of the senior farm managers in charge of the saffron project.

The beauty of an indoor farm is that it remains unaffected by the external environment. You could be breaking a sweat right outside but as soon as you move on to the other side of the electrical sliding door, you enter a whole other world lit up in red-blue neon lights resulting in a radiant blend of purple-violet hues lighting up a hyper-controlled indoor vertical farm.

“In the indoor vertical farm, we don’t have to worry about the external environment because we build our own environment,” says Abbasi, who’s originally from Abbottabad, Pakistan, and has studied agriculture from a Peshawar university.

Indoor versus traditional farming

With a growing area of 430 sqm (vertically) and ground area of 165 sqm, the staff tells us that around 100 sqm of ground area within this indoor farm is equivalent to 10,000 sqm (or 1 hectare) of traditional farming land, in terms of the number of saffron bulbs that can be accommodated inside.

With three big towers, each one comprising seven layers, there are 5,000 saffron bulbs in this vertical farm that, contrary to traditional farming lands, have no exposure to sunlight, soil or tractors but instead are supported by a smart built-in system with cameras and sensors to carefully monitor the growth factors that need to be maintained within the room.

“Instead of using water, nutrients, a big area of land, soil or media [which in hydroponic systems means substrate of soil, such as perlite or coco peat], we’re solely focusing on controlling the four basic parameters, which can be used to grow premium quality saffron,” says Abbasi.

Fundamental four: Growth parameters

The four basic parameters controlled through Veggitech’s smart built-in system are carbon dioxide levels, light, temperature and relative humidity. “We’ve done research on this for almost two years, to come up with the optimal measurements for these parameters to give us the best results,” he says, adding that this process is called LED light-assisted indoor vertical farming.

While the smart system meticulously controls the four indoor parameters, it still needs a good amount of human supervision, says the farm manager. “We can fix the CO2 levels to 800 PPM for instance, and the system will give us that but we need to also supervise the crops and know when to alter these parameters.”

Moreover, vertical farms across the world are now increasingly turning to robotics to make the process even more seamless. “We used to have robots but it didn’t work well. For such large vertical farms, you have to check the crops with your own experience. And we also have to keep in mind our operational costs and return on investment,” says the farm manager.

Why grow saffron in the UAE?

“There has been a growing demand for saffron in the region,” Abbasi responds. “We thought it would be a great idea to produce it here in the UAE. We grow over 50 crops already so it was a natural extension for us to also start growing saffron.”

With no soil being used to cultivate the saffron bulbs, and in considerably less space, growing saffron in indoor vertical farms is also a viable proposition for commercial purposes.

“The UAE has a harsh climate and also the water for consumption is limited, since it has high levels of total dissolved solvents (TDS). Using the auto machine for reverse osmosis to treat the water and bring its TDS levels down is quite an expensive process, in addition to the cost of importing fertilisers,” he adds.

As the use of soil and water can be avoided in this control room, it makes it a more sustainable method for this part of the world.

Saffron growth cycle

The saffron bulbs used for this project that have been imported from Netherlands were in their dormant stage, when brought to the UAE. Ghazal Shafiee, who’s the quality manager at the farm, explains the growth cycle of saffron in the indoor facility.

“The bulbs come alive around mid-August and from then to November, we keep them in the control room, which is what we see at this stage.” Both red and blue lights are used together, at 800-1200 Lux approx., during this phase, while awaiting the bulbs to sprout into saffron flowers.

Once the flowers begin to sprout is when the harvesting stage commences. This can take place any time from beginning to mid-November. “After harvesting the flowers, we can separate the stigmas (saffron threads) and send it for drying, to preserve its colour and flavour. Each saffron flower gives three stigmas,” she explains.

UAE’s first saffron harvest

As of Saturday, November 6, the first saffron harvesting process began at the Veggitech facility, with a blooming batch of purple saffron crocus shimmering with the deep red-orange stigmas, ready to be harvested.

The quantity of 5,000 kg saffron bulbs at the indoor farm will produce only around 5.5 kg saffron, which is hand-plucked from the flowers, making it a labour-intensive process.

This is also the primary reason why saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. Which is why domestic production of the spice could be a landmark moment for the country.

The propagation method

Following this, the bulbs are shifted to the greenhouse, for the propagation process, which takes around 6-7 months. “Once the harvesting is complete, the propagation method will begin, by moving the bulbs to the greenhouse where we can keep them in the growing media. For this process, we will use the semi hydroponics system, which means we will use soil, mixed with soil substrates along with the drip irrigation system that has all the essential nutrients required for propagation, infused into the water,” explains Abbasi. “By mid-July to mid-August, we will get 8-10 new bulbs from 1 mother bulb.”

The plant reproduces asexually through vegetative propagation. Each saffron corm will produce new bulbs, which is how the plant multiples.

“We choose around 3-4 bulbs with superior quality and transport those back to the indoor vertical farm around mid-August. And these are fully pesticide-free,” Abbasi continues. Next year, they plan on building more than three indoor vertical farms to grow saffron as they will not have to import the bulbs from elsewhere, hence, increasing the overall output.

But how do we know which bulbs are of good quality?

• Watch: Sheikh Mohammed visits world's largest vertical farm in Dubai