Lake View's Heray Spice creates opportunities in Afghanistan with saffron

Mohammad Salehi opens a jar of saffron and smells the dark crimson threads nestled inside. The spice has a rich, musky aroma that’s a reminder of home. Heray Spice, Salehi’s fair trade business, imports saffron grown by farmers in Herat in western Afghanistan where he grew up.

Saffron, known as the world’s most expensive spice, lends its vibrant yellow hue to dishes such as paella, seafood and bouillabaisse. During Nowruz, the Persian New Year, many Afghans drink saffron tea and eat tahdig, a crispy rice dish with saffron, yogurt and butter. This year, Nowruz started on Mar. 20 and ends Apr. 2.

Salehi started Heray Spice in 2017 with half a pound of saffron from his relatives’ farms in Herat. Now it sources from nearly 300 farmers in Herat, employs eight in Afghanistan and six at its office near Lake View.

“Every time I hear from farmers in Herat about saffron, it’s deeply emotional for me,” Salehi said. “It’s not just an agricultural crop; it represents community, dignity and hope.”

Last year, Heray Spice imported and sold more than 520 pounds of saffron. It currently sells one gram of saffron for $16, or $169 per ounce. Since 2018, the company has paid more than $643,000 to Afghan farmers, seasonal workers and employees.

That makes a big impact in Afghanistan where the average annual income is $414, according to the World Bank. Since the Taliban took over in 2021 after the U.S. military withdrawal, opportunities have dwindled in the war-torn country.

People in Afghanistan “are struggling. If we don’t help this country who will? That’s why it's important to help these farmers,” Salehi said. “The private sector matters to countries coming out of war.”

Heray Spice on average buys saffron from farmers at $900 to $1,000 per pound, which translates into revenue of roughly $6,000 to $7,000 per year for a grower, depending on the size of the farm.

The company shares 11% of profits with its farmers in a common fund. It also donates 5% of profits to the nonprofit Code to Inspire, which helps girls in Afghanistan.

When he was growing up, Salehi saw farmers’ challenges firsthand.

“The local market was not paying good value for our corps. And many farmers, including my own family, struggled to make a basic living,” Salehi said. His family grew potatoes, barley and potatoes on six acres in Herat.

Before 2021, Afghanistan was one of the world’s largest producers of opium made from its poppies. In 2022, the Taliban banned opium and poppy cultivation plummeted.

Salehi hopes saffron can create stable income for Afghan farmers instead.

“Many of these farmers have lived through decades of conflict and instability. Saffron has given them a sustainable, legal and honorable way to support their families,” he said.

About 90% of the world’s saffron is grown in Iran, which borders western Afghanistan. Neighboring Herat’s soil, weather and environment is similarly ideal for saffron, Salehi said. Ninety percent of Afghanistan’s saffron comes from Herat.

The spice is expensive because harvesting is labor-intensive. Delicate thread-like stigmas within crocus sativus flowers are hand-harvested pre-dawn because sunlight harms them. It takes as many as 50,000 flowers to produce a half pound of saffron. In Herat, saffron is typically only harvested for a few weeks in November.

The last time Salehi visited Herat in 2024, the sight of fields of purple crocuses was "breathtaking,” he said. “Seeing the saffron threads being collected reminded me that behind every ounce is hours of human effort, care and tradition.”

From Herat to Chicago

Salehi’s farmer parents didn’t attend school beyond sixth grade. But they valued education and saved money so he could attend a private academy in Herat. He started learning English at age nine and continued after his father died when he was 12. After high school, he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army and Marines at Camp Stone.

In 2014, Salehi immigrated to Chicago at age 21 after getting a special visa for Afghans working with the U.S. government. An Army colleague in Afghanistan was from Chicago and suggested Salehi relocate there.

Salehi took ESL classes at Harry Truman community college in Uptown while working as an apartment doorman. He also drove a taxi on the weekends. Adjusting to life in an American city was a “huge culture shock,” Salehi said. After work, “I would come back home and cry.”

Salehi stumbled on the idea for Heray Spice in 2017, when he bought cheap saffron at a store on Devon Avenue to cook tahdig for Nowruz. The spice had a strange metallic taste. He later learned that fake saffron, made of corn silk, is common.

Salehi had a light bulb moment. Saffron is expensive and his family in Afghanistan grew it. “Why not start a business?” he thought.

In 2017, he visited Afghanistan for the first time since he left and returned to the U.S. with a sample batch of homegrown saffron.

That year, he also enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In between college and his jobs, he started reaching out to restaurants and stores to cultivate customers for Heray Spice. Sometimes, he worked 80 hours a week.

“I was hustling,” Salehi said. “Immigrants do not find our way easy.”

Chicago chefs such as Rick Gersh were impressed by the rich flavor of Afghan saffron, Salehi recalled. He also won over chefs at restaurants such as Maple & Ash and Gibsons.

He earned bachelor's and master’s degree from IIT in 2021, then worked at a cybersecurity firm in Chicago. He saved money and worked on Heray Spice on the side. In 2024, he left his job to work full-time at his company.

Now, Heray Spice sells to more than 300 restaurants and shops nationwide, as well as on its website and Amazon. Its saffron is kosher and halal and sold by Chicago stores such as Eco Flamingo, Fresh Farms and shops on Devon Avenue. It’ll be in Mariano’s this year. Besides Illinois, Heray Spice’s big customer bases are in California and New York.

Rishi Kumar, owner and executive chef at Mirra near Bucktown, said Heray Spice “has great sourcing practices to support families.” Kumar uses its saffron in Mirra’s lamb Barbacoa biryani and rasmalai tres leches.

“Mohammad is a standup guy and we love supporting small businesses who create their own growth and dreams in America, very much like how I’m able to,” Kumar said.

‘Tariffs are killing us’

After 2021, Heray Spice expanded into importing other spices from all over the world. The company sells more than 50 products, including cardamom from Sri Lanka and rosemary from Morocco. But saffron accounts for 80% of sales.

The company is growing, but it’s weathering pressures that many small businesses face, including inflation, supply chain disruptions and lower sales due to economic uncertainty.

Heray Spice has paid between $20,000 to $30,000 in tariffs since 2025. “Tariffs are killing us,” Salehi said.

Shipping is more bureaucratic since the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Previously, Heray Spice could send saffron from Afghanistan to the U.S. within three days via UPS and FedEx. Now, it must ship through Dubai.

The war in Iran, launched by the U.S. and Israel, poses another challenge. With supplies of saffron from Iran stifled, global prices will increase, Salehi predicted. Farmers may not want to sell to Heray Spice as they seek the highest bidder.

Scaling up is hard because as a small agricultural importer, Heray Spice doesn’t attract investors. “We’re not a tech company,” he said. And lately, “there is more racism in this country.”

Yet Salehi thinks Heray Spice will survive and believes Afghanistan’s saffron industry will grow robustly in the next decade.

But he’s pessimistic about the outlook for Afghanistan. “There are no rights for women. The Taliban are horrible in that sense,” he said. Since 2021, the Taliban has banned education for girls after sixth grade and imposed strict social rules, such as prohibiting music.

Sanctions, restricted international payment systems and the end of foreign aid since the Taliban’s takeover have hurt Afghanistan.

“People are struggling,” Salehi said. “Me helping 350 people is not enough.”

He recalled years of homesickness after leaving Afghanistan and feeling sadness and hope. “Leaving your home is never just a physical move, it’s emotional. I left behind people, memories and my entire family,” he said.

But Heray Spice is a continuation of his journey, Salehi said. And saffron is more than a business. The fire-colored spice represents “staying connected to where I come from, while building something meaningful that bridges cultures and creates opportunity.”