In Madagascar, when the marketing campaign for green pods began a week and nineteen (July 7) in the Sava which concentrated 80% of the production of vanilla in the country, local buyers, collectors and exporters, are few, deplore some planters. The minimum price for the spice is fixed at 75,000 ariary per kilo, about 18 euros, by the government. A price to pay the peasants with dignity, but the buyers are reluctant to buy at this price.
From our correspondent in Antananarivo
“No one buys vanilla here, except in the black markets where farmers sell their products for 30,000 or 35,000 ariary per kilo, which is not profitable at all”, describes a planter from a locality in the district. from Sambava.
In certain controlled markets, the environment is ‘trending’. “Farmers waiting for buyers”, describes Jean Bosco Tombozara, president of an association of vanilla from the Sava planters. “At the start of the campaign, there were buyers at the price proposed by the State. It was going well. But now it’s really stuck,” he continues.
Farmers blocked roads in the middle of the week to show their dissatisfaction. Some of them argue for lifting the price set by the State to let them negotiate with collectors and exporters.
“The farmers would like to sell at 75,000 ariary per kilo, but they also need to sell their vanilla quickly to be able to meet their needs, above all in this context of inflation and rising fuel prices. There are also issues of insecurity and volatility. So, staying with stocks is not a problem”, continues the representative of the planters.
Usually, many farmers sell part of their green vanilla harvest to have a cash return for their daily life and keep the other part of the pods for the preparers themselves and sell them at a better price afterwards. “Not being able to sell green vanilla creates a lot of problems. There are farmers who are struggling to buy food and the rain at the moment does not help the choices because it does not allow us to prepare our vanilla”, testifies Arsinode Ravista, planter of Amboangibe Sambava.
To unblock the situation, the planters are asking the State, in particular, to decide the price of the vanilla prepared on the local market. An unknown that hinders buyers, explaining them. “If the collectors buy our green vanilla for 75,000 ariary, they don’t yet know how much they will sell it after, which is a problem for them. Five kilos of vanilla give one kilo of prepared vanilla”, says Jean Bosco Tombozara.
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A reluctance of buyers which is also explained by the fear of not being able to export the pods since the approvals that authorized to sell internationally have not yet been issued by the authorities.
“The State has intervened to reassure exporters. We have already found solutions and the problem is solved”, says Lidorice Fahandriana Bemananjary, regional director of industrialization, trade and consumption at Sava. The latter specifies that the claim of the planters concerning the decision of the price of vanilla prepared on the local market has also been “registered by the state. ».
The receipt of vanilla export approval application files was opened from July 15th, to indicate the Minister of Industrialization, Trade and Consumption.
Source: https://actu.orange.mg/madagascar-pour-un-renouvellement-de-lagoa-des-2023/