Catalan olive oil producers find saffron a lucrative sideline

The world’s most expensive spice, saffron, shows promise as an income boost for the olive oil producers of Les Garrigues, in the province of Lerida in western Catalonia. With prices for ‘liquid gold’ at low levels and those for the ‘red gold’ lucrative, last year 28 olive oil producers planted saffron bulbs in the district, about 100 miles inland from Barcelona.