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'''Whether one is exploring a national park in the SAVA region or travelling through Sambava, a visit to a vanilla plantation and a preparation facility offers those curious aboout vanilla will offer visitors an insight into the process of how the vanilla orchid plant is transformed from into fragrant black vanilla beans.'''

What can be seen depends on the time of the year and the activities that are ongoing occur at the time of your the visit, which can varies from season to season. Usually, between May and June, the plucking of green vanilla beans happen happens across plantations along the northwest coast around Sambava, Antalaha and Vohemar as well as further into the countryside, while at higher altitudes , around Andapa and Marojejy, the harvesting usually takes place in July or August.

Following harvesting, green vanilla beans are traded at organised market places where buyers place competing bids for the yearly harvest offered by farmers and cooperatives yearly harvest. A minimum price is set by the industry and the government, which in 2022 was 75,000 Ar per kilogram of green vanilla.