3 Reasons Why Madagascan Vanilla So Costly?

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3 Reasons Why Madagascan Vanilla So
Costly? Vanilla was used as a seasoning for a
long time by the inhabitants of Mexico, the
orchid's native place. Even then, it was so rare
and hard to find that it was used as imperial
tribute. When the plant was introduced to Europe,
it took years for them to find a way to pollinate
the flowers and have vanilla pods. But
thankfully, it spread to other parts of the
world, especially to French colonies where it is
still grown. Madagascan vanilla from the African
island nation of Madagascar is one of the best
vanilla that is presently found in the market.
If you have been a long-time baker and food
enthusiast, you will know that the price of
vanilla, especially from the island of Madagascar
has risen significantly in the last few years. It
has impacted the bottom line of many companies
and businesses that use vanilla beans to make
products. But what is the reason for that? Well,
some of the reasons are how the plant reproduces
and some are how bad our global weather has been
in the last few years. So, lets take a look at
some
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of these that make Madagascan vanilla beans the
second costliest spice in the world.
The first reason is how the plant grows. Vanilla
vines take about 2 to 4 years to mature and have
to be meticulously cared for during the growth
period. They need to be grown in shades away from
direct sunlight and hence many plantations grow
it along with banana trees, tropical trees, or
coconut trees. Once the plant reaches maturity,
it needs to be moved to a sunny area as the
flowering starts under thermal heat. Now comes
the most difficult part, pollinating the flower
once it blooms. Two reasons make it difficult
one the flower blooms for just one day, and two,
the natural pollinator for vanilla is found only
in Mexico. Hence vanilla needs to be hand
pollinated in the quickest time possible. The
second reason is due to climate. In recent years,
Madagascar and adjoining areas have seen a rise
in cyclones and other such natural disasters. One
such cyclone Enawo devasted the Madagascan
vanilla bean fields in 2017. The farmers there
had to start from scratch, which led to a huge
rise in the price of vanilla all over the world.
This is going to continue to rise as the new
plants were only ready in 2020, and the pandemic
happened. Though it is nearly 7 years since the
cyclone, the market has not stabilized that much
so the price of vanilla is still higher than it
was 10 years ago. The third reason is economic.
After the successful creation of synthetic
vanilla in the 1980s, the demand for vanilla from
vanilla plants started to decrease. As a result,
farmers who had been doing it for generations saw
little to no prosperity in the business. Many
plantations were shut down, and the skills needed
to hand- pollinate vanilla and dry vanilla pods
slowly started to be shared less. It was only
around 2011 when the demand for original vanilla
started to rise again. The demand for organic,
natural vanilla led some but not all farmers back
to fields but just as they were rising to the
demand, cyclones like the one mentioned before
happened. The cost of running a vanilla
plantation is also high as most jobs can only be
done manually and that too by experts. All this
makes vanilla cultivation quite costly, which in
turn pushes the price up.
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So, these are three important reasons why your
Madagascan vanilla beans cost that much. After
all, vanilla is the second costliest spice in the
world! To explore more visit www.neugininaturals
.co.uk