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Vanilla cultivation, which had been till now confined to the southern part of the country, has now spread to the North East.
A few farmers from Garo Hills of Meghalaya have now started vanilla farming in around 10-15 hectares. Some farmers in Assam are also trying their luck with this crop, D.M. Barman, Deputy Director, Regional Office Spices Board, Guwahati said.
A farmer from Ranirgiri village, some 50 km away from Tura town of Meghalaya, sold 360 kg of dried vanilla beans this year at ₹800 per kg. The Spices Board is supporting the farmers with technical guidance and market linkage, Barman said.
Earlier initiatives
According to him, the Board took the initiative for vanilla cultivation in north-east India decades ago. It supported farmers with technical guidance and supply of vanilla planting materials free of cost in Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya etc. When prices of vanilla beans crashed in the due course of time, farmers did not evince any interest in expanding the area of cultivation.
At the same time, vanilla cultivation has good scope in the North-East as climate and soil are favourable. Vanilla has business potential in the overseas markets as it is organically produced here, he said.
Meanwhile, vanilla prices ruled stable amid staggered demand in the overseas markets in view of the recession. Joseph Sebastian, EcoSpice, Idukki, said the current season was over by December and the crop prices stood at $100 per kg for beans (cooking grades) and around $150 for the extraction grade.
However, industry sources said the declining consumption of ice creams and leisure foods globally on recession has hit vanilla extract exports which dropped to 30 tonnes in 2022 against 70 tonnes in 2021.
Madagascar accounts for 80 per cent of the production with Uganda, Indonesia, and Tanzania making up the rest. The price of Madagascar vanilla is on the higher side at $260 because of the government restrictions not to sell the crop below this level considering its quality. This has resulted in the holding up of the crop, forcing farmers to smuggle the commodity out of the country and to sell it at lower prices, the sources said.
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