You might think of flavour vanilla as being a basic or even a boring choice considering the huge variety we have available to us these days. Vanilla prices however have soured in recent years with the product now costing more per kilo than silver! This of course has a detrimental effect on ice cream, yoghurt, chocolate and even perfume manufacturers around the world… not to forget the consumer… who will now be paying more per scoop! 

The vanilla flavouring has soared in price due to issues with supply and demand. Let's take a look at the UK, it was reported by the Ice Cream Alliance that ‘While many people are only aware of a handful of ice cream companies there are over 1,000 in the U.K. producing hundreds of flavours. Despite this fact, vanilla remains the favourite being chosen nine times out of ten.’ Vanilla is then still the ‘go-to’ flavour for this nation which over the years has led to an increase in overseas demand.

Another factor affecting the supply and demand issue is how long vanilla takes to harvest. It is NOT easy to grow! A vanilla vine needs around two to four years to reach full maturity and their flowers will usually only bloom for a single day of the year! On this single day of the flowers blooming they MUST be pollinated in order for the plants to produce beans. This is an incredibly small time frame during an entire year which would usually mean if grown in the wild the window would be missed by nature’s little workers - the birds and the bees!

Around 80% of the world’s usage of vanilla flavouring is produced in Madagascar where the flowers are pollinated by hand! The procedure is extremely time consuming and the vanilla pods usually need several months to cure once harvested. A labour intensive mission which requires good organisation and attention to detail.

When artificial vanilla flavouring was introduced into the market consumers opted for this as a cheaper-more accessible item, which led to the demand for organic vanilla flavouring to decline. This had a domino effect as the farmers during this period slowed down on real vanilla production which then led to a lack of supply once demand for real vanilla flavouring boomed again. As thousands of companies later began to steer clear of man made or artificial flavourings - big companies were now heading down a more natural path with many more set to follow this trend. 

With the demand now heavily outweighing the supply due to how long it takes to harvest vanilla - the cost of the flavouring increased massively. With word spreading the vanilla vines were at times targeted by criminals who would steal the plants close to maturity to shortcut the production time. The thieves would leave the Madagascan farmers with nothing to show for years of nurturing vanilla vines and no return on their initial investment. Losing a single harvest is enough to close some farmers down due to the amount of labour involved, the financial burden on these farmers is enormous. 

Another issue affecting the supply chain is the frequent cyclones that occur in Madagascar which has only got worse due to the effects of climate change. Poor harvests were recorded back in 2017 due to a cyclone wiping out many a number of plantations, this led to prices increasing by up to 500% in some cases and forced the flavouring into a completely new price bracket. With global warming issues increasing around the world it wouldn’t take too much more to reduce production levels to a minuscule amount, furthermore driving the demand for vanilla even higher. The once seen boring and bland vanilla flavouring may soon become the most sought after flavour in the world.