Saffron is the world's most expensive spice by weight, followed by vanilla and cardamom. Their prices come mainly from hand labour, low yields and climate risk, and swing widely year to year.
The short answer¶
Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world by weight, and has been for as long as prices have been recorded. Vanilla usually comes second and green cardamom is commonly placed third. What these spices share is not rarity so much as labour: each involves careful hand work at some stage, often all of them, and yields per hectare are low.
Prices below are rough and change from year to year with harvests, currency and demand. Retail prices in small jars are much higher per kilo than wholesale prices, so both are mentioned where it helps.
Saffron¶
Saffron is the dried stigma of the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus. Each flower has only three stigmas, which must be picked by hand, usually in the few weeks of autumn flowering, often early in the morning before the flowers open fully. Commonly cited estimates put it at something like 150,000 flowers or more to make a kilogram of dried saffron.
Wholesale prices for good-quality saffron from Iran, which grows the great majority of the world's crop, are typically a few thousand US dollars per kilogram. Spanish, Kashmiri and other origins, and the top grades, command more. At retail, the small jars and sachets sold in supermarkets often work out at the equivalent of several thousand, sometimes over ten thousand, pounds per kilogram.
The consolation is that saffron is cheap per serving. A pinch of 0.1 to 0.2 g flavours a paella or risotto for four. Its price also makes it the most adulterated spice; see spice-adulteration.
Vanilla¶
Vanilla is the cured seed pod of the orchid Vanilla planifolia (and to a lesser extent V. tahitensis and others). Outside its native Mexico, where native insects can pollinate it, every flower must be pollinated by hand on the one day it opens, a technique developed in 1841 by Edmond Albius, an enslaved twelve-year-old on Réunion. The pods take many months to mature, then several more months to cure, sweat and dry.
Vanilla prices are famously volatile. After a cyclone damaged the crop in Madagascar, the main producer, in 2017, prices for cured beans rose to several hundred US dollars a kilogram, and at their peak were widely compared with the price of silver. They have since fallen a long way. Theft of pods from vines has been a persistent problem in Madagascar during price booms, leading some farmers to brand their beans.
Cardamom¶
Green cardamom comes from Elettaria cardamomum, whose pods are picked by hand, often several times through the season as they ripen, then dried carefully to keep their colour. Prices vary with grade, the largest, greenest pods fetching most, and with Guatemala's harvest, which dominates world exports. It is far cheaper than saffron or vanilla, but still a costly spice by everyday standards.
Other contenders¶
| Spice | Why it is costly |
|---|---|
| mastic | Resin from mastic trees on the Greek island of Chios, collected by hand from cuts in the bark; small, protected production |
| Fresh wasabi | Real Eutrema japonicum rhizomes grow slowly in cool running water and take a year or two to mature; most "wasabi" sold is horseradish |
| long-pepper | Small, specialist trade today, though it was once the most expensive pepper in Roman times |
| mahleb | Kernels of the St Lucie cherry stone, extracted by hand; modest production |
| black-cardamom, mace, cloves | Mid-priced, but more expensive than everyday spices, with prices tied to specific producing regions |
Kampot pepper from Cambodia, Tellicherry grades of black pepper and other premium origins sell at well above ordinary black-pepper prices. The price reflects grading and reputation more than a different plant.
💡 Getting value from expensive spices
Buy saffron as threads, not powder, from a reputable seller. Store vanilla pods wrapped and airtight so they do not dry out, and reuse a pod several times after scraping: dry it and bury it in sugar. Buy cardamom whole and grind the seeds as needed.
Why prices move so much¶
- Climate and weather. Drought in Iran, cyclones in Madagascar and poor rains in Guatemala or India move prices sharply.
- Concentrated production. When a single country grows most of a crop, a bad year there affects the whole world.
- Labour costs and rural migration. Hand harvests depend on labour that is becoming scarcer in some producing areas.
- Speculation and hoarding. Vanilla and saffron prices have both been affected by traders holding stock.
- Fraud. Cheap fakes undercut real prices and push buyers towards trusted brands, which cost more.
Historical perspective¶
In medieval Europe, spices now considered everyday, such as pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, were luxuries, and control of their trade shaped empires. See the-spice-trade, pepper-in-history and the-spice-islands. Only saffron and vanilla have kept anything like that status.
See also biggest-spice-producers, buying-spices and storing-spices.