Madagascar: will the vanilla harvest be launched too early?
Madagascar vanilla.
© Getty Images/Pierre-Yves Babelon
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The opening date of the vanilla campaign has not yet been set and it is already unleashing passions.
On the island, two camps clash.
That of the supporters of an opening before June 26, the date of the national holiday, strongly supported by politicians from the vanilla region.
And that of the partisans of the choice of Nature.
Clearly, when the standing pod will have naturally matured.
In the national media, lobbying has begun to try to influence the decision makers on the choice of the date.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Sarah Tétaud
For 5 years, the start of the sale of green vanilla has been given in mid-July.
But for the past few days, senators, deputies and 90 mayors from the Sava region - the vanilla-producing area - have been crying out for the campaign date to be brought forward.
A position validated by some small exporters who prefer to remain anonymous.
“
We delay too much
,” they explain, “
supposedly to get the best vanilla.
But the truth is that the planters, date or no date, if they need cash, they will sell in advance.
So you might as well allow them to sell well, and not at a bargain price because it's done under the cloak.
»
On the other hand, sensitive or not to this claim, everyone watches with irony as politicians take hold of this subject.
“
We're not stupid, huh!
Their logic is purely electoral
”, reports a planter from Antalaha, disillusioned.
On the Vanilla Exporters Group side, this mixture of genres is annoying.
"
We have already had discussions at the level of certain ministries, insisting on the technicality of determining the dates and it is absolutely necessary not to let politics get involved
", explains Georges Geeraerts, its president.
“
There are regional flowering monitoring committees (CROF) within the Ministry of Agriculture.
They are the ones who will determine the flowering peaks.
And therefore the peaks of maturity.
And it is with these data, plus those collected from the exporters who supervise the planters, that together we determine the campaign opening dates.
We must continue to force ourselves to pick vanilla when it is ripe because otherwise we will shoot ourselves in the foot and offer a poor quality product.
»
As a reminder, it is during the last weeks of the pod's maturity that the vanillin level increases significantly.
Madagascar vanilla enjoys worldwide renown, but its decline in quality from year to year has prompted some manufacturers to turn to other origins.
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