Highlights: In its May newsletter, "Aust & Hachmann", one of the world's largest vanilla traders, depicts – from its perspective – the vicissitudes in which the global spice trade is plunged. The Canadian company also describes the market outlook in the short and medium term. An observation refuted, en bloc, by the Groupement des exporters de vanilla de Madagascar (GEVM), represented by Georges Geeraerts: "No one has tangible figures to say that there is overproduction"

In its May newsletter, "Aust & Hachmann", one of the world's largest vanilla traders, depicts – from his point of view – the vicissitudes in which global trade...

Madagascar: an explosive report creates controversy within the vanilla sector

In its May newsletter, "Aust & Hachmann", one of the world's largest vanilla traders, depicts – from its perspective – the vicissitudes in which the global spice trade is plunged. The Canadian company also describes the market outlook in the short and medium term.

End of season of prepared vanilla (bulk vanilla) in Madagascar. © Sarah Tetaud / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

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With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tétaud

The very gloomy picture and the total lack of consideration for the planters in the report, tense to the highest point, the first union of vanilla exporters of the island which wanted to make its version heard. "Increasingly abundant vanilla production", "future price erosion"... The report by trader Aust & Hachmann describes a Malagasy market in decline.

An observation refuted, en bloc, by the Groupement des exporters de vanilla de Madagascar (GEVM), represented by Georges Geeraerts: "No one has tangible figures to say that there is overproduction. There is a demand problem but it is not because there is too much vanilla. There are stocks, but those stocks could be absorbed. It all depends on the attitude of the buyers.

This situation of large inventories, the trader attributes it to several years of fixing a price of the pod well above "the real market price", he writes. An analysis contested by exporters who counter-attack and accuse the Canadian company: "The situation we are experiencing now was largely caused by the existence of a parallel market and the author of this newsletter is no stranger to the existence of this parallel market. What allows me to say this is that Aust & Hachmann bought vanilla in Madagascar that they sold well below the price which was the minimum price set for export. So, there have been financial arrangements to be able to resell cheaper than the minimum export price in Madagascar. They are not the only ones! Many traders have sold vanilla on the European or American market at prices below the minimums set by the Malagasy state.

« We do not once talk about the decent income of the peasant »

The President of the GEVM, Georges Geeraerts also criticizes the position of the trader: "What I find particularly shocking is that in an analysis that is 5 pages long, we do not once talk about the decent income of the farmer. Yes, there is the law of supply and demand. But from the moment we want to talk about development, from the moment we want to be ethical, there is also a price below which we cannot go and this price stems from the decent income of the peasant.

A report that the exporters of the group consider "extremely damaging for the sector" since it implies a possible fall in price, which could well reinforce the already very wait-and-see attitude of buyers of the black pod.

Madagascar: an explosive report creates controversy within the vanilla sector

Madagascar: an explosive report creates controversy within the vanilla sector

« We do not once talk about the decent income of the peasant »

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