We supply vanilla bean straight from Indonesia, direct from our-owned farms, and co-operative partnerships with local farmers
VANILLA
anilla of the world's most precious spices
Is located exactly under the equator, has tropical climate with the average temperature over 25 celcius degrees. With this tropical climate Indonesia can produce many kinds of plantation crops.
Vanilla is one of the agriculture product and has been known since a long time ago, Indonesian vanilla is quite similar to vanilla that is produced in other countries such as Madagascar, Mexico and Comoros with the characteristics like contains a high vanillin contents, rich sweetness and a strong scent, quite different from the one produced in Tahiti, which has a low vanillin content and a scent similar to anise.
Vanilla (Vanila planifolia Andrews) is the same kind of plant like orchid (orchidaceae) the only different thing is the roots, orchid has attached roots while vanilla rooted in soil. This plant grows spreadly in 20° C temperature around the equator and should go through the ripe period in three years before it can be cropped. Plants that classified in the orchid category should be pollinated manually in 12 hours after it blooms, a moment after being harvested the rod of vanilla should be dried immediately, this takes three until six months to process.
The ripeness level of vanilla in one stem is not always the same, because the flowers in one stem never bloom in the same time. Therefore, the harvest of vanilla can not be done all at once. Only the most riped fruit can be harvest from the stem with a sharp grass cutter or knife. The fruit is ripe when the color turned from dark green to yellowish green. The point of the fruit looks fissure, but the whole fruit hasn’t split yet. In this phase, the fruit will produce the best quality of dry vanilla.
After being harvested, the fruit’s pod should be wash immediately and grade it based on the diameter and the length. Grading is important so that the process of the withering, by dipping it in hot water can be on time. Fruits are differentiated by the small, medium and large size based on the diameter and the length. In the process of withering, vanilla fruit is dipped in a 65° C hot water. The long of the dipping is based on the fruit grade. The small fruit only needs to be dipped in 1,5 minutes. The medium size fruit should be dipped in 2 minutes and the big fruit is dipped in 2,5 minutes. After the dipping, the fruit is drained before it is being fermentated until the dry process.
A good quality vanilla is obtained by handling process from the cultivation, harvest and post harvest, the quality standard of vanillain the international market is assigned by International Standard Organization (ISO) and the Indonesian Standardization Body. All this time the US market likes vanilla with 20 to 25% water content more, meanwhile the Europe market prefers vanilla with 30 to 35% water content. This quality standard can be fulfilled if the cultivtion, harvest and post harvest process is done right. Sometimes there is also a weakness in Indonesian vanilla that makes it rejected by the international market, because the pod was too early to be harvested and the withering also the dry process was done wrong. There are known classification (grade) for vanilla quality, they are: Grade I, dengan panjang 15 cm atau lebih; Grade II, 10-15 cm; Grade III, 10 cm and Grade IV in the form of fraction, piece, even decay.
There are three variants of vanilla that became farmers favorite to be cultivate and harvest. The three variants of these vanilla are planifolia, pompona and black tahiti. Vanilla planifolia is the most cultivated varient by Indonesian and Madagascar farmers. The vanilla commodity is the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron, the expensiveness of this commodity is because tits cultivation that need big budget and big labor intensive.
Vanilla Bean Price USD 160-250/kg
Need vanilla in bulky supplies? Specific requirements? Please contact our sales team now!
Our Office Location
PT Alam Indonesia Raharja | MUC Building 5th Floor, Jl. TB Simatupang No.15, Tanjung Barat, Jagakarsa, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia, 12530