Around the world vanilla is one of the most popular seasonings and can be found in perfume to ice cream. One of the main producers of vanilla is Madagascar, however, a crisis may be on the way.
This black bean shaped pod has now reached a price never though possible. The price of vanilla per 1 kg (i.e. 2.2 lbs) were $50 in 2012 and in 2016 have reached a price of $400.
Today the price of vanilla has passed $600 and is close to $700 per kilogram.
There are several reasons for the spike in price of vanilla with one major reason being that Madagascar produces 80% of the vanilla in the world
The majority is produced in one region that includes the north end of Madagascar making the market susceptible to disruption of vanilla farming.
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The cyclone Enawo hit Madagascar in 2017 that ended up destroying vanilla orchids that produced the pods. This was then followed by a major drought.
The price of vanilla has led to violent thefts from farms with locals requesting armed police guards to protect their crop.
In addition, restaurants and their chefs are beginning to replace vanilla bean extract with a synthetic version.
The synthetic version is available at a price of approximately 15$ to $20 per kilogram.
If stability is not gained soon in the natural vanilla bean market it may be hard to get the chefs and restaurants to go back to a natural vanilla extract.
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His research on plant medicine has led to more than 45 publications and abstracts.This research has been presented at international meetings in the USA, France, Turkey, Peru, Israel, Austria, and Italy.
Categories: Food, Herbs, Medical Foods