Plain vanilla gets a fancier price

Priced vanilla at the supermarket lately? One 4-ounce jar of extract, $9.15 to $17.99. One bean, $11.69.

Some brands are selling vanilla in a puny 1-ounce size to reduce the sticker shock (down to $3.89). And everybody agrees prices are headed higher.

What’s going on? Just four years ago, prices were falling, following the breakup of the cartel that had controlled Madagascar’s vanilla production.

The trouble started April 3, 2000, when Cyclone Hudah, a Category 4 storm with 140-mile winds, plowed through the heart of Madagascar’s vanilla-growing region. About 15% of the world’s vanilla crop was destroyed.

“That’s what has caused the problems over the last two or three years,� says Craig Nielsen, vice president of Nielsen-Massey Vanillas Inc., a Waukegan, Ill.-based importer.

And recovering from the storm damage is a multiyear process. “It takes three or four years for a new vine to come into production,� Nielsen points out. Even after the vanilla beans are picked in July, they don’t come on the market until the following December or January.

When the bean is picked, it has no vanilla flavor or aroma, he says. The long, green beans are dipped in hot water to prevent sprouting and start the enzymatic process that develops the flavor. Then they’re put into sweatboxes overnight, left in the sun to cure for three to five weeks and, finally, laid out in conditioning sheds. When they’re picked, the beans are 75% water; they’re only 25% water by the time they’re sold.

“It was expected that prices would start to drop back down this year,� Nielsen says. “But last year, because of bad weather during the flowering season, only 20% of the vines flowered. Instead of its usual 1,200 to 1,300 tons, Madagascar will produce only 300 to 600 this year.�

Since Madagascar is the source of almost three-quarters of the world’s vanilla, the upshot is that the supply of vanilla on the market next year could fall by 50% or more.

“The market is anticipating this,� Nielsen says. “Short flowering has brought in people who haven’t been involved traditionally in the vanilla market -- speculators -- who are buying up the crop not caring what they’re paying for it, and this has been driving up the price.

“And it’s causing early picking. At these prices, farmers are afraid their beans are going to be stolen, so they’re reluctant to leave them on the vines,� he says.

So far, the rising price has not made people rethink the use of vanilla altogether.

“I have not had anybody say, ‘I’m not going to go buy it,’ � says Jennifer Ford, food buyer for Surfas Restaurant Supply in Culver City. “People want to raise their eyebrows, but they still buy it.�

She sells five Madagascar beans for $12.50 and four Tahitian beans at $11.70. “My vendors tell me that in the last year and a half prices have doubled. Our prices haven’t gone up that much, because we buy in enough quantity to get a discount, but they tell me their smaller customers are feeling at least a 50% jump. And large manufacturers and bakers are starting to go over to artificial vanilla.�

“I stockpile,� she says. “But in two weeks, our prices will change.�

“It’s pretty shocking,� agrees Natasha MacAller, pastry chef of EM Bistro in Los Angeles. “We can’t seem to get enough vanilla.

“But you have to bite the bullet. I love the fragrance. I used to use a vanilla perfume,� she says.

How do you stretch your precious vanilla? Keep it in a cupboard, away from light and heat, says Nielsen. The extract will keep indefinitely. Keep the beans in a cool place, but not the refrigerator, because the moisture will cause molding.

What about the future? “Some of my vendors tell me a lot of coffee-growing regions are looking at switching their focus to vanilla,� says Ford. “It’s not a fast cure-all, though.�

“The supply is going to be short this year, and we’re looking at probably another year or year and a half of high prices,� says Nielsen. “They’re now the highest in history. Then, in 2005, we should see a drop, assuming no weather or political problems.�