Villa Vanilla in Costa Rica has an updated website at Rainforestspices.com. Their Demeter certified organic vanilla beans are the longest vanilla beans in the world.
You are currently browsing the archive for the news category.
According to Samantha at Progressive Asia Group Sdn Bhd, Malaysia based vanilla group Rentak Timur Sdn Bhd cannot be contacted by telephone.
I’ve been trying to get more information about RTSB for you, unfortunately the phone number has been canceled.
As far as I can tell, Rentak Timur is out of business, and never really reached market volumes of vanilla beans.
This article from the Hanoi Times comes by way of this post in an Indonesian yahoo group (translator).
Vietnam succeeds in growing vanilla
Posted at 17h11, Day 22 February, 2008
Hanoi Times - Vanilla plants have been successfully test-grown in Thua Thien-Hue province’s mountainous district of A Luoi. The research was conducted out of the Center for Scientific Research and Agriculture-Forestry Technology Development of the College of Agriculture and Forestry under Hue University. Le Van An, head of Hue University’s International Cooperation Department, announced the results on February 13.
update: additional reference
Jack at The Organic Vanilla Bean Company writes in with this bit of info on Indonesia origin vanilla beans:
Your intro page states Indonesia is the 2nd largest producer. I’m not sure where this info came from, but one thing is for sure - probably about 50% of Indonesia’s production is 2nd quality beans smuggles in from PNG. Indonesian buyers make frequent trips to the bush farmers in PNG and buy their lower grade vanilla at very low prices (usually cheating on the weights, too). This vanilla is then smuggled across the PNG/Indonesia border and mixed with the local crop. I think that any tonnage figures you may have from Indonesia could be safely cut by 50% to get a more accurate actual production figure - however, the exact number is virtually impossible to verify.
…it is a practice we would like to eradicate, but because of the corrupt customs officials both side of the PNG/Indo border it will keep happening. It wouldn’t be so bad if the farmers received a fair price for the beans, but usually this doesn’t happen. Most of these farmers have no idea how to read a scale, and even if they could, the scales are fixed to under record. The Indos typically pay about 50% of the going price and discount if further by weight cheating or claiming the items are 2nd grade, when they are perfectly fine.
– Jack, The Organic Vanilla Bean Company, March 21, 2008.
A social factor to consider when choosing vanilla beans…
Indonesian Planifolia Vanilla Beans