Saffron: Saffron is cultivated in many regions of the country, the provinces of North Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi and South Khorasan in the northeast have the highest production share. Iran's saffron is exported to the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Japan, Turkmenistan, France, Italy and the US. The northeastern Khorasan Razavi province exported 57 tons of saffron worth $156.5 million to 41 countries in 2010. The high production cost comes from the exhaustive process of extracting the stamens from the flower and the number of flowers necessary to produce small amounts of spice but the process is in the process of being automated now. Iran is the largest producer of saffron with 93.7% of the world's total production.