SAFFRON project is funded by the EU with the Interreg III C programme. It concerns different Institutions of Castilla- La Mancha (Spain), Western Macedonia (Greece) and Sardinia (Italy) aiming to promote cultivation and consumption of saffron grown in Europe.

Saffron has been cultivated in Europe for more than two thousands years. It is well known because of its excellent prestige, due to the care devoted by European farmers. Despite its excellent quality, nowadays this sector is submerged in a crisis due to the competition of others countries which produce cheaper but worse quality saffron, representing an economic threat for the Mediterranean regions of Europe.

INTERREG III is a Community initiative financed under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) which aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion by fostering the balanced development throughout the EU, through cross-border (Interreg III A), transnational (Interreg III B) and interregional (Interreg III C) cooperation between 2000-06.

1. To analyse in depth the traditional practices used in each saffron producing region which participate in the project, in order to define the State of Art of saffron production and commercialisation in Europe.

2. To propose a Strategic Plan which deals with the current problems and the important future threatens.

The Saffron project last two years since April 2005. It consists of four principal tasks:
Task 1: Collect of saffron practices about production, processing and commercialisation (9 months).
Task 2: Comparative analysis of the aforementioned practices (3 months.)
Task 3: Writing of the WHITE BOOK (3 months).
Task 4: Dissemination of the conclusions presented in the WHITE BOOK (9 months).