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'''Whether exploring a national park in the SAVA region or just travelling through Sambava - , the de facto capital of the world's vanilla - , a tour of a vanilla plantation combined with a visit to a vanilla production and export facility, offers will provide an insight into the lenghty and labour intensive process procedures of transforming the green fruits of the vanilla orchid into the its fragrant black natural vanilla spice that makes it the a much loved and certainly the most highly priced ingredient in craft quality ice creams, quality chocolates and countless gourmet deserts.'''

What can be seen and experienced depends the time of the year and will depend the activities that happen to be are ongoing during a visit. Between May and June, the plucking of green vanilla beans are done completed across plantations along on 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.

The After harvesting, the green vanilla beans crops are thereafter brought by the farmers to organised green vanilla markets trade events across the vanilla producing regions where buyers will place competing bids for the yearly harvests. A minimum price is for the farmers crops is set by the farmers in cooperation with the governmentgovernent each year, which in 2022 was 75,000 Ar per kilogram of green vanilla.

The green vanilla is will be crops are bought mainly mostly by exporters who whowill manage the months-long transforming process of the green beans into black vanilla beans. For As the bens lose moisture and shrink in size during the drying process, for every six kilos of green vanilla, approximately one kilo of black vanilla beans can be produced as the bens shrink and lose moisture during the drying processwill result.

Througout the entire transformation, known as the curing process, the beans are graded and grouped into classifications: Grade A being Gourmet Quality, Grade B Extract quality and Grade C which are known as Cuts & Splits. The classifications are not sometimes confused with indicators of overall quality but of are in fact classifications suitability for different end-uses and their levels of himidity. Low-humidity beans are simply suitable for large-scale food processing purposes, since they can easily ground into powder and mixed into various food products. Grade B, or Extract grade vanilla beans, is a the definition of for the vanilla that is typically suited for the production of vanilla extracts, while Grade A beans, or gourmet quality beans, are selected in part for their appearance.

Grade A beans are usually preferred by chefs and for home baking purposes, especially by end-consumers. Yet, all grades can be used in cooking and baking. While grade A may have a stronger scent and a better overall appearance, the drier Grade B or even C with their relatively low the lowest moisture will offer the greatest volume per kilogram, effectively providing more vanilla and flavour flavouring for the same weight and likely often at a lower price.

In Madagascar, vanilla is rarely used in cooking or and home baking and is almost exclusively farmed for exportpurposes. Since the price of black vanilla peaked in 2018 and 2019 at around USD 500 per kilo in 2018 and 2019, countless farmers have invested time and effort in cultivating vanilla as their a main cash crop.

Historically, the type of vanilla bean grown on in Madagascar is of the Planifolia species, also known as Bourbon vanilla or simply Madagascar vanilla. The "Bourbon" part is dues refers to the history of a French owned slave on La Reunion, known as Bourbon Island, who discovered the hand-pollination method , since without hand-pollination in their a the orchids original environment, natural pollination occurs can only be performend ony by a bee native to Mexico.

Apart from flavouring sweets from in countless deserts to ice cream food and drink products, vanilla is also used in essential oils, cosmetics, toiletries, perfumes as well as in medicines.