Vanilla Is The 2nd Most Expensive Spice. So Why Do Madagascar's Farmers Live In Poverty?

Vanilla is one of the world's most expensive spices because it's so labor-intensive to grow. Madagascar is responsible for 80% of the world's supply. And there, each vanilla orchid blooms for just one day a year. Farmers have to hand-pollinate each flower because the plant isn't native to the island. In recent years, the tough work has paid off, as vanilla prices soared to $600 per kilo in 2018.

But why, if vanilla outpriced silver, are Madagascar farmers still in poverty? Farmers face fluctuating prices, unfair cuts of profits, and vanilla thieves stealing their crops. We head to Madagascar to see how farmers are trying to protect their "green gold."

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Vanilla Is The 2nd Most Expensive Spice. So Why Do Madagascar's Farmers Live In Poverty? | Big Business | Business Insider

[Haya]

If something is expensive, but farmers are poor, the traders are criminals

[RAYDEEY]

It’s the same in Ghana, cocoa is a billion dollar industry yet cocoa farmers are poor.

[RGisOutOfOffice]

It's ironic that farmers who put the most effort in a crop earns just a tiny fraction of the value of the final product. Respect to all farmers around the world.

[junkymirnel]

Props to the person who did the subtitles. I'm Malagasy and it's accurate. Mahay ianao fa tohizo hatrany.

[ingriddouglas]

My father was a farmer in Grenada 🇬🇩, this vanilla bean documentary reminds me of my father’s days as a farmer, the crops were nutmeg and cocoa, they were always underpaid. While companies in America and Europe profited, with them knowing anything about planting any kind of crops.

[everythingallin]

Respect to all the farmers across the world. The good ones have a relationship with the planet that others don't understand.

[merkridge]

Vanilla farmers need to form their own coop and process their own beans. This is the secret this video didn’t bother to cover. Stored correctly, processed vanilla beans can last 30 years! If the market price is not to their liking, they can hold onto it and wait for a better season. In Tonga, Vanilla beans are actual currency. They are stored in bank vaults for years on end.
On the off season from vanilla, Madagascar farmers need to grow coffee and process it themselves with the same Coop.
The late Tom Kadooka from Hawaii was the worlds’ leading expert on Vanilla. He began propagating vanilla back in 1941. For well over 60 years Tom tried to get Kona coffee farmers to grow vanilla on their off season. Kona coffee farmers resisted due to the detailed work that went into propagating Vanilla.
Vanilla is second to Saffron. 4 acres of coffee produces the same yield as a quarter acre of Vanilla. Any other domestic produce would require hundreds of acres, equipment and tons of manpower to match the yield of both vanilla and coffee.

[Centermass]

I love these types of educational videos that remind me that something I couldn't care less about is someone else's whole world.

[raphaeleisenberg]

There is something wrong with the 1300% price increase. Because fresh vanilla crops are full of water and very heavy. With dry out beans you need much more beans for one Kilogram. Would be nice to consider this as well.

[sylvia]

What a beautiful thing, one man, on his land, pollinating his flowers. They bloom for one day, remember this when you savor vanilla flavor..

[epicflicks]

I've lived in Madagascar for 16 months. Believe me you can get 7-8 kilos of big fresh lychees for just a dollar. The vanilla is also damp cheap like a local seller would provide 10-15 sticks for a buck.

[lupea]

It's marked up ridiculously. I'm American. If you buy a whole vanilla beans in the US, IT CAN COST $15 for 2 beans. But if i were to go to Mexico at a farmers market in Jalisco. Vanilla beans cost $1.25 per bean. The product is only expensive because of all the middle man prices. But that's my guess.

[Pheebe.Dee.]

It must smell divine there surrounded by the aroma of vanilla.

[proteus]

It’s amazing how many modern crops have their origin in South America

[garethwhite]

the language the farmers are speaking, it's very beautiful.

[toms]

13:51 Correction: The margin between Farmer and Middleman is not 1300% but 30-60%.
Green Beans: Dry Beans ratio is 1:5 meaning you can expect to loose up to 5 times the weight when the vanilla is cured. Consequently, the farmer is paid 17$ per kilo, but roughly 200 grams of dry vanilla will come out of it. 5 Kilos of Green Vanilla Beans = 1 Kilo of brown, dry Vanilla.

Its more accurate to say the farmer is proportionally paid 85$ per kilo of dry Vanilla, while the cooperative earns 250$, to this you need to consider the employment costs of curing, sorting, packaging, transport and taxes. As observed, this employs a lot of people and is labor intensive, in the grand-scheme of things, cooperatives earn no more than a 30-60% net margin. Nothing wrong with this imo as its creating a lot of jobs and opportunities to work with large buyers.

At the end of the day, the farmer earns 85$ per kilo of Dry Vanilla and the middle-man banks an additional 25$-50$ net profit per Kilo. This is very, VERY different from the 1300% the video claims.

[annps]

My family started to grow vanilla two years ago. This year the plants started to bloom. But, the whole vines were stolen during the rise of vanilla pods price..THE WHOLE VINES, not just the pods

[AwokenEntertainment]

this makes me appreciate vanilla ice cream on a new level..

[curlyhairdudeify]

There isn’t anything more heavenly than home made ice cream flavored with real vanilla.... there are no words to describe how beautiful it tastes.

[terifinnegan]

Wow, very interesting, I didn't know that growing and preparing vanilla was such a painstaking process. I feel for the farmers, they are the one's basically doing all the work!