The Hindu : Karnataka News : Agency to help vanilla growers planned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 19, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Agency to help vanilla growers planned

By Our Special Correspondent

SHIMOGA, NOV. 18. A new cooperative is being floated to provide direct access to vanilla growers to the international market with a view to prevent them being exploited by middlemen.

Krishi Prayoga Parivar (KPP), a voluntary organisation engaged in innovative agricultural research, has taken the initiative in establishing a tie-up with United States-based organisations that have offered to purchase the produce directly from the growers at the prevailing international prices.

Stating this at a press conference here on Thursday, the director of KPP, A.S. Anand, said that VMA Farm Aroma Pvt. Ltd. and Lokaseva Charity Foundation, both of the U.S., had agreed to act as mediators between the growers and global purchasers to ensure a fair and remunerative price for the produce.

Interaction

Mr. Anand said that an interaction between the growers and the representatives of the purchasing companies had been organised at Sagar on November 21 in which H.M. Haldy, adviser to KMC Consultants of Germany; Mahesh Devappa of VMA Farm Aroma Private Ltd., Bangalore; Shankar Hegde Malenahalli, managing trustee of KPP; and L.T. Hegde of Lokaseva Charity Foundation would participate.

Mr. Anand said that though the vanilla grown in the Malnad region was in great demand in the international market as it contained a high per cent of vanillin, it was being purchased as a third-rate produce denying growers a reasonable price.

He said that if vanilla containing two per cent vanillin was rated as a first-grade produce, the vanilla grown in the Malnad region contained three per cent vanillin.

He said that the KPP would educate the growers about the new technology on the processing of green vanilla beans as the dry beans enjoyed a greater demand in the international market.

Production

He said that though the area under vanilla in the Western Ghats was not clearly known, it was estimated that the annual production of dry vanilla beans was 15 tonnes.

Mr. Anand pointed out that there was good scope in the international market for quality vanilla beans.

He said that the vanilla growers were being exploited in the export market as its international price was not being quoted on a regular basis.

Demand

He said that as the demand for the dry beans was more in the international market it was proposed to form groups of farmers to take up processing of the green vanilla to fetch a higher price for them.

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