17. Vanilla
from The Sweaty Penguin Hosted by Ethan Brown
The global vanilla market is ridiculously unstable, with vanilla prices swinging from $20/kg to $600/kg in the span of a few years, higher than the price of silver. And 80% of vanilla is grown in Madagascar, an island facing extreme poverty and, increasingly, cyclones which threaten to destabilize the market even further. Today, we break down why the vanilla price swings so dramatically, how cyclones threaten to impact it, the consequences of these swings for the environment, economy, and Malagasy farmers’ livelihoods, and where we could go from here. With special guest Dr. Julie Zähringer: Senior Research Scientist in the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern in Switzerland.
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