Status: December 25, 2021 8:34 a.m.
It is hard to imagine Christmas biscuits without vanilla. The price of the pods has been rising for years. In China, researchers are trying to take advantage of this: They are growing vanilla and are looking for the perfect fermentation method.
Zhao Qingyun opens a small gate in the fence that surrounds the vanilla test field. The agronomist carefully steps onto the mossy, slippery tiles that lead between the long rows of vanilla plants. “This is our institute’s vanilla garden,” she says. “And as you can see, the plants grow on small round stakes. These are entwined by the plants.”
A demanding species of orchid
The experimental garden with the vanilla plants is around 3500 square meters. It belongs to the Botanical Garden of the city of Wanning on Hainan. It is the largest island in the People’s Republic, which is located in the very south of China. There is a warm, humid tropical climate here, which is perfect for growing vanilla.
Zhao Qingyun heads the vanilla cultivation research area here. “Originally, vanilla was a plant that only grew in the jungle,” she explains. “Vanilla likes it warm and humid. It grows best when the humidity is around 80 percent.” Vanilla is a very demanding plant – more precisely: a species of orchid. It thrives best at temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius – or if you like it very precisely like agricultural scientist Zhao Qingyun: 27 to 28 degrees are optimal for vanilla plants.
Agronomist Zhao Qingyun is an expert in growing vanilla orchids.
Image: Steffen Wurzel
Harvest time is between November and January
Zhao points to the hundreds of plants in the vanilla garden of the Botanical Garden. They are almost completely green now, at this time of year. No more of the yellow-white flowers of the vanilla plants can be seen. Instead, the bean-like, elongated green vanilla pods are now visible on the plants. Harvesting can take place in the next few weeks.
“The climate here on Hainan is such that the vanilla plants typically bloom between February and May,” explains the agronomist. The pods would be harvested between November and January: “We planted our plants here two years ago. This year we are harvesting for the first time, but only after about four years can we harvest a lot of pods.”
From Mexico all over the world
The vanilla plant originally comes from what is now Mexico. Hundreds of years ago, the Aztecs were already using the strongly aromatic black capsules, which can be obtained from the flowers of the vanilla orchid fruit. The Spanish conquerors of the Aztec Empire brought vanilla to Europe, and later the plant was also brought to other tropical parts of the world. Today the main growing areas of vanilla are Madagascar and La Réunion in the Indian Ocean, east of the African continent.
The cultivation of vanilla is extremely complex and therefore expensive: Not only are the plants very sensitive, the flowers also have to be pollinated by hand. After the pods have been harvested, they also have to undergo a lengthy process – through drying and fermentation.
“As long as the vanilla pods are fresh and green, they contain a lot of enzymes,” explains Zhang Yanjun, who works in a state food laboratory located on the grounds of the Wanning Botanical Gardens. “The first step in processing the pods is to kill around 70 percent of the activity of the enzymes in the pods. The enzymes that are left over release the natural aroma of vanillin during the fermentation process.”
Wanning vanilla is grown on around three and a half thousand square meters in the experimental garden of the Botanical Garden.
Image: Steffen Wurzel
With high tech to the perfect vanilla
The employees of the vanilla research laboratory in Wanning on Hainan are very proud that they have developed a very special method over the past few years to get extra flavor out of the vanilla pods. The many devices, ovens and analysis computers here in the food laboratory show how complex it is to research and document everything that happens in the vanilla pods during the fermentation process.
The entire process takes three to six months, says Zhang Yanjun. The whole thing begins with the so-called “sweating off” of the pods immediately after the harvest; then the plant parts are dried and fermented until the thick, black pods can be sold.
Vanilla cultivation on the Chinese island of Hainan is to be expanded significantly.
Image: Steffen Wurzel
“You can make good money”
On the southern Chinese island of Hainan, vanilla grows not only in the Wanning Botanical Garden, but also on some test fields outside of it: for example on a small field by Fu Ruijun, around an hour’s drive north of the Botanical Garden. The 59-year-old has been growing vanilla since the 1990s. “Many farmers in the neighborhood take a very close look at what I’m doing here,” he says. “Because you can earn good money in a relatively small space.”
The price of vanilla pods fluctuates a lot. In recent years, prices on the world raw material markets have risen significantly: Customers in Europe notice this when they buy vanilla pods in the supermarket – and this is noticed by producers like Fu Ruijun: “At the moment, vanilla pods can be sold at good prices,” says the farmer. At the moment he gets around 40 euros per kilogram of raw material.
Vanilla stronghold Hainan
Back in the laboratory of the Wanning Botanical Garden. Here the pods are refined through drying and fermentation – and so the 40 euros per kilogram that the farmer receives for the raw material is multiplied. Laboratory worker Zhang Yanjun is holding a clear plastic bag that is bulging with thick black fermented vanilla pods – ready for sale. When he opens the bag, the scent of fresh, aromatic vanilla wafts through the room. Sales price: the equivalent of more than 1100 euros per kilogram bag.
Nevertheless, the vanilla grown on the Chinese island of Hainan is not yet really profitable. So far it has mainly been sold in the visitor center of the Botanical Garden: in the form of vanilla chocolate, vanilla perfume, green tea with a vanilla aroma or as whole pods. The number of vanilla pods harvested here in the very south of the People’s Republic is still far too small for export to the world market.
“At the moment there are many thousand square meters of vanilla plantations here on Hainan. But we are still a long way from meeting the global demand for vanilla,” says agricultural scientist Zhao Qingyun. “But many agricultural companies on Hainan are interested in getting into this business. Hainan has been declared a free trade zone, which is a useful economic policy factor. We expect that thousands of hectares of new vanilla plantations will be built on Hainan in the coming years.”