Will Vanilla Prices Soar?

A story from the Associated Press, published on 8 December 2008, indicates that an incurable disease has destroyed about 80% of the vanilla plants in Madagascar. Why is that important to you? Madagascar ships most of its vanilla to the U.S. , where it is used in candy, soft drinks and ice cream.

The situation occurred in the first place because vanilla prices were high. Farmers crowded plants together, trying to get the most from their land. Scientists "think" they might have a disease-resistant variety of vanilla, but no one knows for sure yet. Even if the new varieties work, it will no doubt take quite a while for production to be renewed.

My take on this is that the price of real vanilla is going to soar. Moreover, it's very possible that the price of imitation vanilla will also rise, because people who generally use real vanilla will be forced to buy the imitation. So, go get your stock of vanilla, during the holiday sales.

If you would like to read the "rest of the story", here is a link http://fe14.story.media.ac4.yahoo.com/news/us/story/ap/20081208/ap_on_bi_ge/af_madagascar_vanilla