Madrid, Spain – Fields of purple flowers contain crimson stigmas that make saffron, an essential spice in Spain’s national dish, paella. Saffron gives the rice-based dish its distinctive yellow colour and earthy aroma. Though the central Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha grows its own crop, Spain depends largely on Iran for its supply.
This could now be under threat after the United States said in late August that it would launch an “economic onslaught” against Tehran’s trade partners around the globe to cripple Iran financially. The United Arab Emirates also said it would suspend trade relations with Iran. Exactly how Washington would take measures against all of Iran’s trade partners remains unclear, although on September 4 the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on Turkiye’s Golden Global Bank, which the US accuses of facilitating funds for Iran, CNBC reported.
Our biggest supplier by far is Iran. Then we sell it to markets all over the world,” Jose Luis Guerrero, of CEAE, a Spanish saffron export company that began in 1904, told Al Jazeera. Two years ago, Spain accounted for three-quarters of EU imports of saffron from Iran.
The impact could be more significant for Spanish companies involved in importing, processing, packaging and internationally distributing the product.” Until the full details of US sanctions are known, it will not be possible to work out the impact on the Spanish saffron trade, Naranjo said. Paella is not in danger,” she joked. Analysts say the success of the US strategy largely depends on China, the main buyer of Iranian oil and its leading trading partner.
Spain’s commercial links with Iran are minor compared with countries like Turkiye and Pakistan. In 2025, Spanish companies exported products worth $143m to Iran and imported Iranian goods worth $141m – a total of almost 245 million euros ($285m) in the bilateral trade of goods, according to Spanish government figures. Imports of saffron were worth $61m, more than 40 percent of all imports from Iran.
US-Spain relations, meanwhile, have been strained. President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have previously clashed over defence spending among NATO member states. In July, Trump threatened to cut off trade relations with Spain, saying Madrid had been a “terrible partner in NATO”.
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