When you think of saffron, dark red strands from Spain or Iran may come to mind. But the delicate spice, one of the most expensive and labor-intensive in the world, grows well in another country long plagued by conflict: Afghanistan.
Rumi Spice, a small, enterprising company in Brighton, Mass., is trying to build an Afghan saffron connection for lovers of the spice in the U.S., and cultivate peace through trade.
Behind Rumi Spice is a group of veterans, including USMA grads Kimberly Jung ’08 and Emily Miller ’08 who served in Afghanistan who are now business school students, a lawyer, an Afghan water specialist and farmers the vets met while serving there.
The idea for the fledgling company came about in March 2013, Jung was chatting with a fellow vet named Keith Alaniz. Alaniz told her about how when serving in Afghanistan, he met a local saffron farmer who had a warehouse full of the valuable spice, with no buyers lined up overseas.