The price of black whole-bean Madagascar vanilla, the benchmark product, costs $520 per kilo.
McCormick, which sells vanilla and its extract to retailers, restaurants and packaged food makers, said it has been passing the higher costs on to buyers. The African island nation produces about 80 percent of the world’s vanilla.įor McCormick & Co, the world’s largest spice company, the scarcity of vanilla has become too big a risk to ignore, spurring it to begin cultivating an alternative source on the north coast of Papua, Indonesia. But supply is an issue too: Cyclones, drought and crop-theft have hit Madagascar in recent years, slashing into the tender crop’s quality and quantity. In less than five years, the wholesale price has risen nearly 500 percent, partly because of growing global demand for healthy, natural ingredients. REUTERS/Clarel Faniry Rasoanaivo/File PhotoĬultivated painstakingly over years from an orchid plant, vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, after saffron. FILE PHOTO: Fresh vanilla pods are seen at a plantation in Ambavala, near Andapa, Sava region, Madagascar July 14, 2018.
