Why Tyrian Purple Dye Is So Expensive | So Expensive | Insider Business

imagine making a pallet full of this dye and it gets lost in shipping lol

Anyone notice the very rusty blade he was using! 😮

I read the Romans had murex farms built in north Africa to produce Tyrian Purple but even then they still could get the price down.

It sure made me happy to see that even his kitchen walls were painted purple.

Wind enters the chat.

Like the color of things that did not burn in Lah'aaina,MAUI

Why not farm snails to make it sustainable, more available, less expensive and create jobs? Remove the glands for pigment, sell the meat for food or fertilizer and while the snails are growing you can also collect their feces to sell for fertilizer much like worm castings. I'm sure there are uses for the shells too. Also, they'll do a lot of the work of keeping the breeding tanks/pools clean themselves.

The reason it's so expensive is because the Lanister's were the ones to discover this color...

Phoenician 🇱🇧 Tyr

In Tyria there is a trader called black lion trader. They should buy dye from them for couple of silvers. Not that expensive.

Imagine aliens come to this world and will be making bar of soups from out skin and rest they will eat. No waste 😂

הנה התכלת לציצית

That is a disgustingly wasteful process.

The lengths human beings armed only with fire and rocks have gone to for a pop of color is ludicrous. People struggling to just stay alive somehow found the free time during daylight hours to figure this out - time that could have been spent doing SO many other valuable things, but figuring out the most excruciating way to make purple won out. Humans are crazy and weird and amazing and wonderful.

Why did he chop it up like it was a line of coke?

farm the snails and make it more sustainable?

This is the original way of making purple in Europe. This is why only kings and emperors were allowed to wear it. I had no idea it's still being used to produce products instead of just a couple of people preserving the method for historic value.

Colour is luxury but snails r necessity of eco system

I get that its expensive from the labor, but how is there any demand if the color isnt consistent? Is it really just for collectors?

Has someone told this guy that murex snails can be bred in captivity?

Wasteful

A thing that really strike me about this is his name- Mohammed Ghassen Nouira- if I'm not wrong that would mean he belongs to the Ghassanid tribe (Banu Ghassan) who came from Arabia. For those who don't know they were Arabs who converted to Christianity and were a powerful Roman client state in modern day Levant, Syria and North Western Arabia. They fought multiple wars alongside the Romans as their allies and would stand with them till the end against the armies of the first Islamic caliphate where the Romans and their allies were defeated. After the defeat and subjugation by the new Islamic caliphate, the Ghassanids would reject Islam and most of them would remain Christian, launching rebellions against the Islamic authority during the first fitna in hopes of regaining the lands that once belonged to them and their Roman overlords. This failed however and many of them were relocated to different parts of the Arab empire to prevent any future uprisings. And they exist to this day.

My point is, if this guy is a Ghassanid then he belongs to a people who used to be faithful to the Roman Empire and he is working hard to revive the colour of the Roman imperial purple in lands that once belonged to the Empire. It is beautiful in a way.

Of course I could be super wrong and he actually is not a Ghassanid and in that case I apologise for assuming.

damn imagine paint a house with tyrian dye

Unfortunately, not affordable enough for the rich.
-Money

Greedy business man shame on u

Don't use animal products

Stramonita haemastoma releases a rich red purple

You know, I didn't expect Tunisian dye maker Mohamed Ghassen Nouira to sound like Brad from Van Nuys.

I hope it becomes even more expensive, so no one cn afford them. An artificial copy of this color should be better than killing creatures for such a small amount of color.

If I was rich I would go buy one of each from this channel.

Yea they need to stop using animals for dyes.

Most useless work and people who pay for this are idiots, just buy normal artificial dye

In Essaouira, Morocco I hired a translator and went in search of the ancient Roman Caesar’s staple for garnets Tyrian purple. Through the translator I explained in great detail what this was used for in ancient times and how it has always been a dream of mine to see cloth made and dyed this colour. I got to see this first hand when the merchant dyed a piece of snow white fabric with natural green powder that he made from snail in front of me, I was so taken aback when the cloth then reemerged as an ancient Roman Tyrian purple garnet. The merchant was so proud and amazed because this meant so much to me that he gave me some dyed garment and a small bag of Tyrian purple, he told me to place it in an airtight jar and kept it then when you die take it back to your folk. Might sound odd but I will never forget this experience as long as I live.

“What makes it so hard to make and so expensive?”
First thirty seconds of video: you need about a billion sea snails.

This is why over 90% of national flags don’t have the color violet/purple.

So how many hundreds of thousands of snails are killed just so this dude can make a dye that could simply be purchased in a store. No color is only available in this way, any color can be created in a lab and doesn't require the deaths of so many lifeforms.

LMFAO! this place is a snail dystopian nightmare

When I saw the man I was expecting a thick indigenous accent and then he starts talking and it’s GEN Z vibes “omg, I must say…” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

omg. those poor snails. 😖

4500 snails killed for 1 gram of dye? What an utter waste of life, while a cheap, synthetic alternative is available. This business should go down.

What a f'in waste of time and money. Ffs only sails but really that many for so little what bs

specie gonna go extinct

Murex

We kill a lot of shit for money 😂😂😂 😅😅

Poor creatures dying for our beauty

Seriously?

i was NOT expecting that voice

kudos to ghassen for putting preservation of the species as main concern. tunisian government should give him more acknowledgement and award for reviving national treasure. you better did it before other country claim it.

hmmm i hope ancient people discover purple yum from Philippines XD it has a wonderful purple color too