vanilla – Our Planet Our Insight

Northidge, CA- As the price of vanilla goes up in the global markets so does violence in Madagascar.

Village crime, government corruption and forest destruction are the consequences. Madagascar is the world’s prime source for vanilla pods. 75 percent of today’s pods comes from them

Crop thieves target farmers to steal their Madagascan gold– vanilla. Villagers are left to protect themselves without the help of local authorities. A crowd in Anjahana stabbed and hacked five alleged gangsters to death in their village square.

Environmentalists say the vanilla market is being used to launder money made illegally from rosewood sales. In 2014 a shipment of 30 thousand rosewood logs in route to China were intercepted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Rosewood traders have since slowed and looked into other industries. Business experts speculate that after vanilla prices were going up due to the demand by wealthy nations– the rosewood traders saw the opportunity to launder money.

They bought up stocks that created a shortage making the price rise even more.