The Hindu Business Line : Vanilla growers seek support price

Vanilla growers have raised a distress call for relief against sliding prices that has hit the bottom in four years to less than Rs 1,000 against Rs 3,000 four years ago.

The Vanilla Growers Association of India has urged the Union Government to fix a minimum support price, excise exemption to user industries to curtail dependence on synthetic vanillin imports. The country's production of 200 tonnes is predominantly exported, with only a small quantum being consumed locally.

The association has demanded a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,500 per kg for processed vanilla beans. It said the State Trading Corporation should be made the nodal agency for procurement of certain minimum quantity of cured or processed vanilla beans this year.

It said with the international prices crashing due to supply glut from Madagascar, which accounts for 80 per cent of global production and absence of domestic demand, growers were reluctant to harvest the crop as they were unable to bear the interest payment, repayment of loans and other expenses.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Rajesh Jagdale, President of the association, said the Government should come out with a long-term policy along with excise exemption to user industries such as pharmaceuticals and food processing. It should also be mandatory to a stipulated quantity of natural vanilla to curtail synthetic vanillin, Mr Jagdale said.

Deploring that the representation submitted by the association Vanilla Growers' Association of India (VGAI) to the Prime Minister's Office and Union Commerce, Finance and Agriculture Ministry had evoked little response, Mr Jagdale said without an early Government intervention the farmers would be pushed into penury.

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