Make vanilla supply chains a force for good.
Natural vanilla is one of the world’s most expensive spices due to its demanding cultivation methods. Its market is also one of the most volatile, often prompting uncertainty, poverty and illegal activity among smallholder growers. Companies have introduced some promising initiatives focused on improving living conditions and sustainability to promote stability in the vanilla supply chain, but as research suggests, they require the right insight, tools and data to truly comprehend sustainable vanilla production’s complexity.
Betting your livelihood on vanilla production must be equivalent to a gruesome life-long emotional rollercoaster ride.
Vanilla is one of the world’s most volatile commodities. Its price rose to 500$ per kilo in 2003, plummeted to under 25$ per kilo by 2008, only to climb back to as high as 450$ per kilo in 2017.
“The constant ups and downs in prices make it impossible for producers to focus on sustainable vanilla cultivation — the risk of being economically dependent on vanilla alone is simply too high,” Dr. Dominic Martin of the University of Göttingen, said when discussing a study he authored on vanilla cultivation and its impact on people and nature in Madagascar.
A reason for hope
The research led by the University of Göttingen team suggests that vanilla production in agroforestry settings can be an effective sustainable cultivation practice benefitting both humans and nature. If carried out on fallow lands, even intensified vanilla production can in fact promote biodiversity conservation.
The team studied Madagascar’s northeastern SAVA region — the area spanning the districts Sambava, Antalaha, Vohemar and Andapa — which is a remarkable biodiversity hotspot. SAVA is also home to the vast majority of Madagascar’s vanilla production as well as 70–80% of all global high quality vanilla output. Agroforestry practices could protect this economically crucial region and its biodiversity richness. Unfortunately, the story of SAVA’s surrounding areas illustrates the grave consequences nature can face when smallholder communities are pushed to severe economic stress.
A cautionary tale
The vanilla triangle is part of Madagascar’s northern ecoregion and borders the Tsaratanana Reserve and the COMATSA conservation area, which are home to plant and animal life that can be found nowhere else on earth.
Thanks to their remoteness, the forests and mountains of Tsaratanana long remained one of the last mostly undisturbed ecosystems on the world’s fourth largest island, but analysis of satellite imagery from 2018 to 2020 found deforestation rapidly increasing within Tsaratanana’s river valleys,even at particularly remote high elevation areas.
The reason? Encroaching on the protected regions for slash-and-burn agriculture to illegally cultivate vanilla, marijuana, and rice. This is driven by tremendous poverty rates and further exacerbated by recent economic pressures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
These illegal agricultural expansions in Madagascar’s north put the lives of species at risk. Species in areas so remote they have not even been surveyed. Advances into such remote and difficult terrain for very little economic reward also underscore the level of desperation and poverty among the local communities.
A complex quagmire
Vanilla farmers are facing a double-edged sword of obstacles. They experience external disruptions through theft, human rights abuses, political instability and violence. They also face market volatility because vanilla’s demanding cultivation methods make it difficult to rapidly adjust production in line with global supply and demand, but possibly also due to a growing money-laundering scheme associated with the now illegal local rosewood logging industry.
Lack of cash flow then forces them to harvest their stocks too early and flood the market with poor quality vanilla. On top of that, the lack of proper sustainable practices and finance prevents them from growing higher-priced high-quality vanilla to escape this trap.
Recent research and initiatives aim to encourage sustainable cultivation practices of vanilla and other crops in Madagascar. For instance, Mars’ and Danone’s 2016 project to develop a sustainable vanilla supply chain has been very promising.
An opportunity for companies
When developing initiatives and making decisions on their vanilla sourcing, companies need to be able to account for the many external uncertainties and complexities smallholders frequently face, so that they maintain their economic benefits during both high and low price points.
Incorporating these smallholder perspectives when developing sustainable supply chain models to make production more efficient is the most effective way to stabilize the vanilla market, farmers’ livelihoods and biodiversity at the same time, according to a 2019 smallholder perspective study promoting a new sustainability model for measuring changes in power and access in global commodity chains.
Foodscapes echoes the sentiment to balance outputs, livelihoods and biodiversity to achieve a sustainable food system and greater market stability. The Nature Conservancy, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and SYSTEMIQ introduced foodscapes as a concept to describe the building blocks of global food systems, looking at the geography, biophysical characteristics, and management attributes distinct to specific food production. Understanding a foodscape through its environmental and social context can take learnings from similar places or societal contexts.
"Mapping and analyzing foodscapes reveal the transitions needed on the ground to meet this century's most pressing challenge: the threats posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and increased demand on the integrity of the global food system." - Excerpt from the Foodscapes report.The recent Foodscapes: Toward Food System Transition report found that nature-based solutions to land conversion, such as adopting agrosilvopastoral techniques — the combination of growing trees, crop production, and grazing cattle — would increase the net production and habitat value of the Gran Chaco Region. Here, agrosilvopastoral is estimated to increase farm profits two-fold. Although analyzing a different foodscape, there is an inspiration that can be considered for Madagascar.
The key take-away: a more prosperous vanilla production community that grows sustainable vanilla translates into a more stable vanilla price and a more reliable market. This benefits corporations as well as local smallholders.
A tool to bridge the knowledge gap
For global companies to understand whether their supplier farms are tied to sustainable operations that benefit human rights and economic stability, they need tools that can provide this information.
Cue the large variety of maps, satellite images, and datasets from sources such as Trase, Global Forest Watch, and Impact Observatory, which offer clear insights on human activity and environmental impacts. For instance, thanks to the analysis of satellite imagery and biodiversity datasets, we know how the vanilla cultivation poverty cycle is triggering deforestation and biodiversity loss in Northern Madagascar.
When paired with intelligent geospatial open data tools such as LandGriffon, such open geospatial information can help companies map procurement data and analyze their supply chain’s environmental impacts. This in turn finally allows companies to effectively direct their sustainability efforts.
LandGriffon empowers companies to map their vanilla supply chain. It works with all levels of procurement and sourcing so companies can finally plan strategies that align their needs with those of vanilla smallholders and the ecosystems they live in.
Interested in what LandGriffon could do for your company?
Contact us now at hello@landgriffon.com
LandGriffon is developed by Satelligence and Vizzuality, and advised by the Stockholm Environment Institute and their Trase Initiative.
