Recently, Madagascan President Rajoelina Andry stopped at the SAVAN (Sahanala ADM Vanilla) joint venture’s curing facilities in Antsohihy. President Andry spent an hour and a half visiting with various members of the team, noting that Sahanala – SAVAN is a model for local development, with regards to SAVAN’s approach supporting farmers. President Andry was elected, in part, because of promises he made to keep vanilla farmers’ best interests in mind as Madagascar produces roughly 80% of the worlds’ vanilla. He has made good on those promises setting fair floor (minimum) prices for vanilla beans.
Translated from Malagasy, the President’s team shared on Facebook: “The government fully supports the efforts of farmers and cooperatives like in the field, which promotes the quality of Malagasy products. Vanilla produced here is one of the best and most sought after in the world, with vanilla givrée which has a 3% vanilla content in it while it is 1.6% to 2.2%. for vanilla in general. This is a living example for Madagascar. Malagasy farmers are the best at coming together and we will be able to hold the top spot by having the best quality vanilla in the world.”
The President’s Facebook and Twitter pages even shared a picture of a bottle of Rodelle Organic Vanilla Extract, launched in Costco Canada in July. Visit this link for the video that the President’s Official Facebook page posted from the visit.
As a part of ADM, we are proud of the hard work that our vanilla team has done to forge an amazing joint-venture partnership with Sahanala that grounds our vanilla products to the origin source. Seeing Rodelle’s branded vanilla extract as part of the President’s visit as something that he noted is super cool!! Watch for more farmer-focused news and products in the coming months!