[Madagascar] produces 60 percent of the world's vanilla beans - used to
flavor ice cream, cakes, colas and much more - but the price is at its
lowest in years. And the future is hazy, as other countries move to profit
from vanilla's enduring popularity and food makers turn to cheaper,
imitation flavors.
... the head of Maryland-based McCormick Co., the world's biggest vanilla
buyer, says his company has begun buying more of its vanilla from
Indonesia, India and Vietnam...
the price has sunk from average highs of about $230 per kilogram at one
point in 2003 all the way to $25, a level not seen since the late 1990s...
Vanilla ... reached Europe in the 1500s, courtesy of Spanish explorers
returning from Mexico, and became a prized perfume and flavor. Thomas
Jefferson is credited with introducing it to the United States - now the
world's largest consumer - after visiting France in the late 1700s.
By the mid-1800s the vines themselves made it to Madagascar. Because the
bee that pollinates the plants in their native Mexico does not thrive here,
growers must hand-pollinate every flower. Some accounts say the method was
discovered by a Belgian botanist; others say it was a slave boy on Reunion,
an Indian Ocean island near Madagascar...
the method has not changed...
each flower's anther and stigma with sharpened bamboo sticks so that a
vanilla pod, or bean, could emerge.
The green-and-yellow flowers bloom from September through December, but
each blossom lasts just one day...
re-laced the vanilla vines over and through the branches of 12-foot coffee
trees... to get the right blend of shade and sun preferred by the orchid.
In Madagascar, growers ... sell to collectors, who then sell to
exporters... Sometimes small collectors sell to large collectors
**
A 50-kilogram batch of prepared beans had just arrived, suffusing the room
with its distinctive, sweet aroma. The beans, whose life began last fall,
underwent a long process to reach this stage.
After nine months on the vine, they were picked green in July and within a
week immersed in hot water to stop growth. Next, they spent a few days in a
large wooden box, turning brown. After several days it became clear which
beans were black (prized by gourmets for cooking) and which were red
(destined for liquid extract). The beans then went into the sun for about
three months to dry out...
The best ... smell like a chocolate sweet; the worst evoke turned wine,
salami or cheese...
worldwide production is about 2,000 tons.
Three tons of red beans sat in boxes bound for the United States, where
they will wind up on store shelves as bottles of extract. ... employees in
green-and-yellow uniforms packed 11-centimeter-long beans wrapped in twine...
[in] 2000, ... a cyclone damaged a portion of the vanilla crop, pushing up
prices. Already prices had been rising as worldwide supplies failed to keep
pace with international demand in the late 1990s.
In Madagascar and elsewhere, farmers saw the potential for greater profits
and began planting more vanilla vines. Because it takes three to four years
for a new vine to reach full production, the first half of the decade
shaped up early as a seller's market.
More shocks followed for Madagascar. Late in 2002, unusually cool and damp
weather here kept many vanilla flowers from blooming. Last year another
cyclone hit, causing fresh damage.
The price marched steadily up. People remember it like a dream: $30 per
kilogram in 2000, hitting the $100 mark in 2001, $150 in 2002, and over
$200 in 2003. They also remember armed bandits robbing individuals and
entire villages of their vanilla, confrontations that on several occasions
ended in murder.
At one point in late 2003... the price would be $200 in the morning, $220
by afternoon, $250 the next day...
In some cases a single kilogram fetched $500. McCormick, looking ahead,
made a gamble and locked in $50 million worth of vanilla at 2003 prices. It
turned out to be a bad bet. The price tumbled...
Now, it's natural for people from outside to push the price down because
they can have vanilla from Uganda at a lower price.
The price dropped sharply last year. Some of McCormick's big industrial
customers switched from natural flavors, and vines in more than half a
dozen countries began bearing fruit. Supply had finally caught up with demand.
The rest of this decade should be a buyer's market... global supply will
exceed demand by about 50 percent, which should keep prices stable at low
levels.
...
Madagascar ... its beans are widely considered the best, with their smooth
and creamy flavor.
..
a rising share of vanilla flavor and fragrance is synthetic, according to
Patricia Rain, owner of a California vanilla firm and author of Vanilla:
The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance.
Artificial vanilla is usually made from a byproduct of paper processing, or
from a substance derived from coal tar and
