Bakers and vanilla latte drinkers might have noticed the increase if price of vanilla and vanilla extract in the past few years. And many of you may wonder why this is the case.
Vanilla History
Vanilla comes from an orchid, originally found in Mexico. Since the 1400’s Aztecs were using vanilla beans to sweeten chocolate. When Spanish conquistadors came across vanilla, they too loved the spice and brought seeds and beans back so they could share it with Spain. Once back in spain, they found that the vanilla orchids would not produce beans. The reason for this was due to forgetting to bring bees along with the vanilla. Vanilla is naturally pollinated by a specific bee called the melipona bee. Unfortunately, like most bees, mepolina bees are also becoming extinct, meaning that there is no natural form of pollination left for vanilla flowers. But we love vanilla too much to let it go, so that results in most of the cultivated vanilla being hand pollinated, which as you can imagine, is an incredibly tedious and time consuming task. This is a reason that vanilla has always been a pricier spice.
Why is the price of vanilla going up so quickly?
Mentioned before was that Vanilla originated in Mexico. However, now a days most of the world receives their vanilla from Madagascar, which was recently hit by a massive cyclone. While there are other areas of the world that grow vanilla, they are not able to produce enough supply for the high demand. The results are obvious, rising demand and little supply means a dramatic increase in the price of vanilla.
While the Madagascar vanilla supply has been damaged, it will not rebound overnight. Unfortunately, vanilla orchids take from 3-5 years to produce vanilla beans. Vanilla farms are constantly at risk for environmental damage, and have to hope that they are not struck with a devastating natural disaster within the next 5 years, so that they are able to export vanilla and help supply the demand.
What are businesses doing about this?
Consumers are demanding natural ingredients in their products and businesses are expected to provide these natural and affordable products.
In 2017, vanilla was $600 per kilogram, which up from around $100 in 2015. Today vanilla is more valuable than silver ($530 per kilogram). With Vanilla being the second most expensive spice behind saffron, what are businesses expected to do?
As a result, some businesses have stopped making vanilla flavored products to keep their prices low. Others have found a way to still keep “vanilla extract” legally on their labels, but with the use of absolute minimal vanilla…sometimes using vanilla specks to legally say that their product has “real vanilla”.
Other Sources of Vanilla Flavor
Vanilla beans contain a compound called Vanillin, the compounds that gives vanilla its distinctive flavor. Vanilla extract is produced by steeping vanilla beans in alcohol, and removing the beans to leave the vanilla flavor. Imitation Vanilla is synthesized from pine bark, clove oil, rice bran, or lignin. Imitation vanilla can also be produced using other chemical synthesis or biosynthesis methods.
Sources:
https://www.vanillapura.com/pages/vanilla-bee-extinction
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=169.175
https://www.ft.com/content/1c810c2a-286f-11e8-b27e-cc62a39d57a0
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-vanilla/
Very fascinating article! There’s also now vanillin produced via microbial fermentation: https://www.evolva.com/vanillin/ (similar to how we produce rennet for cheese).