Vanilla is the most popular flavor that we enjoy in almost every dessert. In addition, this flavor is also a demanding ingredient in many cooking and baking recipes. As a result, you can easily find vanilla on the market at low prices.
In addition, Vanilla beans have an allure that makes them apparent and expensive. It has a sweet incorporated fragrance, making it richer with user experience and taste. However, when it comes to buying vanilla beans bulk in packing, it is quite challenging, especially for the budgeted shopper.
A 4-ounce vanilla bean costing $3-4 each is the actual reason that puts shoppers in perplexity. We have wrapped below some important reasons that people want to know.
5 Reasons for the high cost of Vanilla beans
1. Centralized Growth
Madagascar is a large producer of vanilla beans around the world. Around 80% of beans are produced in Madagascar. And amazingly, it is the major source of income for people living there.
Vanilla beans are grown in the side area of Madagascar, where there are no good facilities. Therefore, if any economic or transport issue happens, it will affect the whole supply of vanilla beans with no backup.
2. Growing Process
The beans of vanilla have a tough cultivation process, as vines are hard to hand harvest and cure due to the manual process. Therefore, it requires a large workforce to fulfill the task in the vanilla orchid.
Moreover, hand pollination is the only way to produce vanilla beans, and its flowers bloom once a year. The full production process of beans takes 3 to 4 years. Because of the long growing process factor, farmers cannot respond accordingly to the change in the market demand and supply variation.
3. Climate Challenges
Madagascar Island, in recent years, has been severely damaged by the storm that has devastated many plants and crops. It is very common to have cyclones on the island, but due to large environmental changes, there is more storm than cyclones.
That is why it is more challenging to produce more crops and increase production. Farmers are at risk and have no surety that their crops will last until the whole production year. i.e., 3 to 4 years.
4. High in Demand
Farmers reduced the production of real vanilla due to low profitability in the 1980s because most companies tend to promote artificial products. Nevertheless, in 2011, again, the demand for natural product raise due to the usage of organic products.
Therefore, vanilla farmers again pulled up the gear and started to produce vanilla beans back into the business. However, unfortunately, it took time for farmers to get back into business as beans took too long to meet the market demand.
Conclusion
Vanilla beans are expensive and have less supply. In addition, the plant grows at huge risk due to climatic factors. Most of the beans are raised in Madagascar, which has faced many storms in the last 5-6 years. Moreover, other factors, such as labor fees and high demand, also play their part in making beans more expensive.
