• Sorting: According to length, appearance, and degree of maturity, the green beans are sorted into four types.
• Cleaning: Applying special mechanized high-pressure cleaning equipment with a vibrating screen, batches of different types of beans are cleaned and loaded onto stainless-steel mesh plates.
• Killing: The plates full of beans are immersed into an automatic temperature control water pool for several minutes. The temperature and duration of the “killing” stage are dependent on the size of the different types of beans.
• Fermenting and rapid drying: After killing, the beans are transferred to a drying chamber compartment, in which the specific temperature and humidity conditions are controlled. During this operation, the beans lose some water, turn deeper brown, and become supple with a perceptible aroma. This is the so-called “sweating” of the traditional method, rather than a true microbial fermentation.
• Slow drying and conditioning: This procedure is carried out in a clean room at ambient temperature. It is a process to continue the aroma development and browning, and the beans slowly lose more water. Ultraviolet sterilization is used to prevent microbial damage to beans at this stage.
• Grading and packaging: On the basis of the sorting of green beans, cured beans are sorted into grades according to their length, appearance, vanillin, and water content. The vanillin or water content is mainly affected by curing, therefore, the length of cured beans constitutes the real difference between grades. Cured beans of different grades are packed and labeled, and then stored in a special warehouse for sale or delivery.
The production capacity of this semiautomatic line in the former Yunnan Vanilla Company was at least 300 tons of green beans per year. It was built in 1997 and unfortunately dismantled when the Yunnan Vanilla Company went bankrupt in 2007. In Hainan, several companies own vanilla production lines or equipment with different capacities, and they usually cure their own green beans and those they buy from local farmers.
Use and Marketing
Vanilla growers in China include companies and farmer households. Usually, green beans are cured by a few companies that own their equipment or production line for vanilla processing. These companies sell cured beans directly to customers or market their own processed products from vanilla. Some companies are therefore not only vanilla growers, but also the main users of cured beans.
Vanilla beans and their derivatives are mainly used in the cigarette and food industries, such as in coffee, wine, sauces, baked foods, and confectionery, especially tea products. Furthermore, vanilla beans are also used for cooking, although there are few people in China who use vanilla for cooking as they are unfamiliar with the exact usage and unaccustomed to using it for cooking in Chinese foods. With the development of information technology and the rise in the living standards of the people, more and more common people are becoming acquainted with vanilla and beginning to learn to use it for cooking or other purposes. At scenic spots in the vanilla-growing region, a lot of vanilla beans are directly marketed as local tourism products and sold to tourists.
Owing to the increasing domestic demand and limited output, vanilla beans produced in China are seldom exported. In the past, only a few batches of cured beans produced in Yunnan were exported to Japan and other countries by the former Yunnan Vanilla Industry Ltd. In recent years, Chinese production has only just covered domestic demand for vanilla bean.
Prospects
The rapid development of vanilla industries in the past years has met with diffi-culties and problems in many respects. However, the industrial development of vanilla in China has great potential and many advantages. Over the past 49 years of research and development and in over 10 years of vanilla industrialization, China has fostered and established the market for vanilla and its related products, and has developed a whole set of mature cultivation and curing techniques. In recent years, the vanilla industry has begun to show a new trend and has maintained steady and sound growth. With the support of vanilla companies and local government, an increasing number of farmers are beginning to plant vanilla in Hainan Province. We have full confidence in the prospects for vanilla development in China. The vanilla industry will have broad horizons and bright prospects for development.
National Agricultural Standards for Vanilla in China
For promoting the development of the vanilla industry, the following agricultural standards for vanilla were issued by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in 1999. They were drafted by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences.
NY-T 362-1999 Vanilla seedlings
NY-T 483-2002 Vanilla NY-T 713-2003 Determination of vanillin in vanilla beans NY-T 968-2006 Technical rules for vanilla cultivation
References
Chen, D. 2005. About vanilla bean, topic 111 Survey papers on present situation of Chinese vanilla bean industry. Flavor and Fragrance Cosmetics 5:32–36.
Chen, D., Liu, S., Deng, Z., Lan, Y., and Ling, C. 2007. Exploration of the largest wild population of Vanilla siamensis Rolfe in the world, and its implication for the development of vanilla industry in China. Flavor and Fragrance Cosmetics 5:49–52.
Liu, Z., Chen, S., and Ru, Z. 2007. Vanilla shenzhenica Z. J. Liu & S. C. Chen, the first new species of orchidaceae found in Shenzhen, South China. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 45:301–303.
Mao, G. 2002. Suggests of promoting vanilla production in Hainan island. Journal of Yunnan Tropical Crops Science & Technology 25:22–26.
Zhou, H. 2000. Technique and Operating Regulations of Vanilla Producing. Enterprise Standard, Yunnan Vanilla Industry Ltd.
Chapter 24. Vanilla Production in French Polynesia
Sandra Lepers-Andrzejewski and Michel Dron
Cultivation and Producers
Vanilla has been cultivated in French Polynesia since the nineteenth century. Tahitian vanilla, the genuine black gold of French Polynesia, is cultivated for its famous beans, which develop an intense fragrance of anise notes (see Chapter 13). The vanilla plantations are mainly located in the archipelago of the Society Island (Figure 24.1). The surface dedicated to vanilla production covers 306 ha (SDR, 1995). The island of Tahaa is also called the “Vanilla Island.” The island has a land area of 88 km² and harbored 573 vanilla producers in 2002. Its nearby islands, Raiatea and Huahine, comprised 206 and 300 vanilla producers (census of the SRD, 2002). Vanilla is also widely cultivated throughout French Polynesia. From Tahiti and its sister island Moorea (10.3 ha of vanilla production) to the Marquesas Islands (2.4 ha), the Tahitian people meticulously cultivate their invaluable Tahitian vanilla. Vanilla is cultivated by two techniques: the first one known as the “traditional way” and the second called the “under shade house technique.”
FIGURE 24.1 Map of French Polynesia. The Society Islands (Iles de la Société), where vanilla production is the most important, are circled in black.
Traditional Way of Cultivation
The traditional way of cultivation has been used for several generations, where the vanilla vine is planted at the base of a tree. The tree provides stake and shade for the climbing orchid. The vanilla plantation is generally located on a hillside, within a cleared forest, chosen for its high content in organic matter (Wong, 1999). The plantation is sloped, below wooden trees to benefit the humus generated by the trees at the top. If the ground is flat, the soil needs to be drained, digging channels to clear up the excess of water. The choice of the stake is important that it must protect the vanilla from the heat of the sun or wind and not compete for water supply and compost. The two favorite stakes are the “piti” (Gliricidia maculata) and the “pignon d’Inde” (Jatropha curcas) (Figures 24.2a and c). Gliricidia is a leguminous plant, which does not compete with vanilla for nitrogen supply. It grows quickly and requires frequent pruning. Jatropha requires less pruning to limit its growth, as leaves fall naturally during the dry season when flower induction occurs in vanilla. Thus, it does not need pruning. Other natural stakes are also used—the “purau” (Hibiscus tiliaceus), the “aute” (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), or the “nono” (Morinda citrifolia) (Figures 24.2b, d, and e).