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'''Whether on a tour of the SAVA region exploring a national park or just travelling through Sambava, the de facto centre of the world's vanilla - a visit to one of the countless vanilla plantations as well as a vanilla preparation and export facility offers an insight into the lengthy and labour intensive process of transforming vanilla orchids into the fragrant black vanilla beans bean that is the end-product most people are familiar with.'''
What can be seen depends the time of the year and the activities at the time of a visit. Usually, between May and June, the plucking of green vanilla beans 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.