KROKOS, Greece—Every autumn, Zisis Kyrou is more often found plucking flowers in northern Greece’s purple saffron fields than in his office as a civil engineer.
Saffron—the spice so expensive it’s called “red gold”—has brought jobs and money to a region better known for coal mines and unemployment. A year ago, its producers began exporting to the United States. Now they’re looking to China.
