Real, honest-to-goodness saffron can cost over $5,000 a pound.<br />Saffron threads come from crocuses, and are so tiny that no machine can harvest them. It can take one worker 40 hours of manual labor to harvest just one kilogram.<br />And of that one kilo, roughly half of it will be discarded because it doesn't meet quality standards.<br />Despite the astronomical price, Business Insider reports demand for the spice is so high that many adulterate or produce fake saffron.<br />Threads that look real at first glance could actually be made of corn silks, coconut fibers, or even horsehair.<br />Synthetic colorings are also used to dye the lower-grade stigmas and sell them as high-grade saffron.<br />In 2010, Spain exported 190,000 kilos of saffron, worth $50 million. But Spain's total production amounted to only 1,500 kilos.<br />At the time, a local farmers union reported that up to 90% of Spanish saffron exports were fraudulent.
