World Vanilla Shortage

You may think twice this summer before buying that tub of your favorite vanilla ice cream. Wholesale prices have risen by around 20 per cent in just two months – an increase which will hit thousands of food and drink manufactures, including ice cream makers. 

“The stocks in the world are being run down and we are getting to a point now where we are likely to see the price suddenly shoot upwards,” said Nick Peksa, business development director at market analysts Mintec. 

Many people don't know that there is a major vanilla shortage occurring around the world. According to Mintec, the production of vanilla in Mexico alone has fallen by 90% in the past year. As a result, panic buying has begun driving up stock prices. In fact, widespread stockpiling of Madagascan black-vanilla has pushed up the prices up even further because of a recent rush order which entailed around 40% of the world supply of black vanilla (~1000 tonnes). Note that Indonesia also produces black-vanilla, alongside India and Mexico, but these countries have been experiencing a massive reduction in production.

So what is "black-vanilla" you ask? Black-vanilla is just a fancy name for "food grade vanilla". It is called black-vanilla because of the color of the dried pods harvested from the orchids. As previously mentioned, it is only grown in a small handful of countries and as a result its price is susceptible to poor harvest.

As global warming is taking effect and the population continues to escalate, we are seeing more and more how precious our resources are; especially vanilla. In fact, vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world – after saffron – because it is so labor intensive. 

According to Mr. Peksa from Mintec “Vanilla is the most expensive ingredient in ice cream production per kilogram, so it is highly likely that some producers will not be able to absorb the extra cost. This could push the price of ice cream up by around 10 per cent.”