Market update · 2025 – 2026 season
Where the vanilla market stands
What moves the price of Madagascar vanilla, what a quotation should be read against, and when in the year it makes sense to buy. Updated monthly — last revised.
50 – 80 USD/kg
FOB range observed at exporters
Grade, moisture and volume move a quotation inside this range — and sometimes outside it.
1 600 – 2 000 t
Madagascar production, cured beans
2 200 – 2 800 t
World production, cured beans
What we are seeing
- Madagascar still accounts for the large majority of the world crop, with production usually placed between 1,600 and 2,000 tonnes of cured beans. Every other origin combined stays well under that.
- The gap between the official export floor price announced by the Malagasy government and the prices actually practised remains wide. Any quotation should be read against what is really being traded, not against the announced floor.
- The market remains volatile. It peaked above 500 USD/kg during the 2017–2019 shortage before collapsing. Anyone planning a year of purchasing should budget for a range, not a number.
- Political instability in Madagascar since late 2025 has not, so far, disrupted the export chain in a way that changes availability for buyers. We will say so plainly here if that changes.
How to read a price you are given
A quotation without a specification is not a quotation. Two suppliers can announce the same figure per kilo and deliver material that costs you a third more once you account for what you actually use. Three questions settle it:
- What is the moisture content? You are paying for water as well as vanilla. How to compare two offers on dry matter →
- What is the vanillin content, and measured how? A number without a method behind it is a sales argument.
- Does the quoted price include the origin statement?Without a REX statement your import into the EU pays duty it did not need to. What that involves →
The season, and what it means for your order
| Period | What happens | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| June – July | Green vanilla harvest | Nothing is shippable yet. A supplier offering new-crop beans in July is selling something else. |
| July – October | Curing and drying | Three to four months during which moisture comes down to a usable level. Rushing this step is the single most common cause of mould in a shipment. |
| November – March | Grading, lotting, export | The period when new-crop lots become available with their analyses. Ordering here gives the widest choice of grades. |
| April – June | Carry-over stock | What remains from the previous crop. Perfectly usable, but selection narrows and older lots need a recent certificate of analysis. |
Questions we get asked
What is the current price of Madagascar vanilla?
FOB prices observed at exporters sit broadly between 50 and 80 USD per kilo, but a single figure is misleading: grade, moisture content and volume move a quotation significantly inside that range. Ask for a price against your own specification.
Why is the official floor price different from what suppliers quote?
Madagascar sets an official minimum export price, but the prices actually practised have diverged from it. Read a quotation against what is really being traded rather than against the announced floor.
When is the best time of year to buy vanilla?
New-crop lots become available with their analyses between November and March, which gives the widest choice of grades. From April onwards you are buying carry-over stock: still usable, but the selection narrows.
A word on what this page is not
These are ranges observed across the market, not a quotation. We do not publish a price list, because a price that does not match a specification is worth nothing to you — and a figure we would have to walk back would cost us more than it earns.Ask for a price against your own specification →