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35akzente 1/15 COMMITMENT > Contact GIZ Madagascar > giz-madagaskar@giz.de CAPITAL: Antananarivo POPULATION: 22.9 million1 GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP): USD 10.8 billion2 ECONOMIC GROWTH: 2.1 per cent3 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX RANKING: 155 (out of 187) Source: 1 2 3 World Bank 2013 Mozambique Madagascar Supporting small farmers ProjeCt: Improving living conditions for vanilla farmers Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development PARTNERS: Unilever And Symrise START: 2014 Four fifths of natural vanilla traded worldwide comes from Madagascar. Although the country’s Bourbon vanilla fetches high prices on the world market, those who invest a great deal of time and effort in producing the spice receive only a small share of the profits. In order to improve the living conditions of vanilla farmers, GIZ has set up a partnership with scent and aroma manufacturer Symrise and food giant Unilever. Around 4,000 farmers currently supply vanilla pods to Symrise. One of the objectives of the pro- ject is to improve vanilla quality, so that farmers can negotiate higher prices. At the same time the project sets out to reduce farmers’ dependency on vanilla by diversifying the range of arable crops grown. MADAGASCAR www.giz.de/madagascar jungle to make way for new rice fields. This land is then no longer available for vanilla plants. Fair market prices for vanilla? Earning the trust of the farmers is not easy. Va- nilla farmer Totoantsarika, for example, has taken part in training courses and learned a lot about growing vanilla. Despite this, he sold only a few kilograms of vanilla pods to Sym- rise this year. ‘We’ve heard lots of promises be- fore,’ he says. First he wants to see how things will go from here. ‘The health insurance is fan- tastic, of course,’ he says, since doctors are ex- tremely expensive. ‘If Symrise is serious and what they are offering is long term, then I’ll make a partnership with them, no question,’ he says. But one complaint comes up again and again. ‘The price we get for our vanilla is far too low,’ says Edward Todisoa, leader of one cooperative. Symrise says this remains tied to the international market price due to competi- tion. The current price for one kilogram of black vanilla is around 80 dollars. For the un- processed green pods, the farmers get about half that amount. In general, fermented va- nilla is more valuable, but the process is too costly and labour-intensive for most farmers. So how fair is the price they receive? Nobody really knows. With a view to rectifying this sit- uation, GIZ is currently undertaking a study to look into farmers’ financial circumstances and how much vanilla production actually costs them. For like René Totoantsarika, very few farmers keep records of income and ex- penditure. He is unable or unwilling to say how much he earns. ‘Too little,’ is all he offers. But he is aware of the importance of putting money aside: ‘I want my children to have a chance to study.’ Tanzania Source: 123