Green harvest
In the SAVA area, the latest available green production in the remote villages located in the mountain of Andapa was sold out on July 31st. In these locations, during the normal crops; the green market started only by end of August because of its maturity which is delayed compare to the seaside or the intermediary area. In the Analanjirofo area (Maroantsetra and Mananara-Nord), where the quality is the best for this 2016 crop; the maturity of the green is preserved and a very good quality is expected from these locations. The green pods are still continuing in the district of Mananara-Nord but at 3 days walking on foot from the closer village located in the middle way between Maroantsetra and MananaraNord. The current price of the green is 180 / 185 000mga (60 / 62 Usd) per kilo from the farmers and delivered to the town of Mananara-Nord or Maroantsetra at 190 / 195 000mga (63 / 65 Usd). Same as the starting date; a lot of commissionaires and collectors are coming in the villages where the green pods are still available and accentuate the pressure. In the Sofia region, the last green market is expected to start this week for a small production estimated to be around 100Mtons of green. Vrac market Few quantities of Vrac vanilla beans are starting in Ambanja and in the Sava region. Most of them are still wet with a shrinkage up to 40/50% and priced at 450,000 to 500,000mga for the loose beans and shorts (10- 11CM) while the split and whole vanilla beans 12CM+ at 650,000 to 750,000mga per kilo depending to the moisture content. After curing; the cost price after shrinkage is estimated to 300 – 330Usd for the loose beans and shorts while between 370 to 430Usd for the Split and Whole vanilla beans. These are an indicative prices based on the current Vrac vanilla beans prices. Exporters’ Charges and margin aren’t yet included. We foresee that the Vrac prices will continue to rise up and their cost prices will be higher than the green curing out of the fact that the quality is for sure worse. The practice of the vacuum packing is unfortunately still done at farmers and collectors level although the government decree after the National Platform of Vanilla (PNV) recommendations. Some collectors who won a lot of money after speculating during the past 2 years corrupted their local authorizes to allow them buying early before the start date on April and using the vacuum packing. We will give more details in our next market report on the Vrac situation as it’s just starting on the market. Note that there is no market place for the Vrac vanilla beans but the commissionaires and collectors are doing to negotiating to farmers privately.
Overview of the 2016 crop size
We continue to confirm that the 2016 crop size is 1.5 times more than 2015 crop. It means the 2016 production should be at least 1,500Mtons of cured vanilla beans based on a normal yield of 6.5 to 7kg of green pods for 1kg of cured. During our recent visits in the farmers and collectors locations in different areas; some farmers curing got 9 to 12 as yield because of immature pods, particularly to those who has picked up the green 2 to 3 months early than the official start date. The fact that a lot of green pods were picked immature will decrease the production due to weak yield. Because of that situation, the 2016 crop size in Madagascar will probably decrease to less than 1,500Mtons of cured vanilla beans.
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