In 2000, another massive cyclone hit Madagascar. In the 1980s, the cartel who had been in charge of the vanilla prices and distribution since the 1930s disbanded which caused a drop in price of around 70%, lowering the price per kg to around $20USD. This caused a massive price increase which continued until the mid 1980s. Pretty outrageous isn’t it? Yeah, I think so too…Īfter methods of cultivation had been achieved and were commercially viable, vanilla plants were sent to other Islands in the area along with pollination instructions so that commercial production could begin.ĭuring the late 1970s, a tropical cyclone ravaged the areas where the main vanilla crops were produced. While Edmonds discovery changed the way vanilla was produced and enabled Réunion to become the world’s largest supplier of vanilla, he died in poverty. The method of pollination that he pioneered is still used today. This revolutionised the way vanilla was grown and made it possible to commercially cultivate the pods outside of their native Mexico. In 1841, a 12-year-old slave named Edmond Albius figured out how to hand pollinate the vanilla flowers in a cost-effective and fast way using a blade of grass and his thumb. Only very specific insects are able to get far enough into the flower to pollinate it. As you can see, the flowers have a long neck, with the pollen at the top and the female parts at the base. This method turned out to be completely financially unviable and as such could not be used commercially. In 1837 a Belgian botanist, Charles Morren, discovered that the flowers weren’t being pollinated and came up with a method of artificially pollinating them. While the flowers carry both male and female sex organs and don’t need another flower for cross-pollination, they have a membrane separating the two organs meaning that only specific insects are capable of pollinating them. While vanilla did grow, the crops didn’t produce any fruit as there were no insects capable of pollinating the flowers. The main island they were cultivated on was Réunion. In 1819, vanilla plants were shipped to a few islands off the Indian coast by French businessmen in the hopes that they could cultivate their own vanilla supply rather than relying on the Mexican supply chain. When the Spanish invaded and conquered the Aztecs in the 1520s, conquistador Hernán Cortés introduced vanilla to Europe and until the mid 19th century Mexico remained the main vanilla producers and suppliers for the rest of the world. They named it after the fact that the mature fruit will shrivel and darken shortly after being harvested. They were invaded and conquered by a neighbouring Aztec tribe from central Mexico who fell in love with the taste of vanilla and named it “Tlilxochitl” meaning “black flower”. The flowering, flat-leafed orchid was first cultivated by the Totonac-Aztec people, who lived in what is currently known as Veracruz. It’s believed that vanilla has been cultivated since the 15th century.
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