Vanilla growing, begun as a trial at the Spices Research Centre in Bogura in 2019, has spread to Jhenaidah, Jashore, Chuadanga, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Sylhet and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, though no one has yet reached commercial production. Prothom Alo's Shafiqul Islam reports that a kilogram sells on the world market at around USD 250, about Tk 30,000.
Vanilla is the fruit of a climbing orchid, a spice. The flavour usually found in ice cream and cake is artificial vanilla made in laboratories, and that is what Bangladesh imports.
Abu Hena Faisal Fahim, a senior scientific officer at the centre, brought a single cutting from Indonesia after a training trip in 2019. Cuttings taken from that plant have grown into 60 vines on three decimals at the centre. A teacher at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University is also researching the crop.
Vanilla will not grow in ordinary soil. It needs an organic decomposed medium and shade. Flowers may come two or three years after planting, last only a few hours and must be pollinated in that time. They usually appear in April, and the pods ripen in November and December.
After harvest the pods go into water at 60 degrees for three minutes and then into a box for 24 hours of fermentation, which turns them from green to black. They are then dried for two hours each morning in mild sun for a month. Bangladesh has no commercial method yet for extracting the essence.
"It has been proved that Bangladesh's climate suits vanilla," Fahim said. But the crop is labour-intensive, and a project of 1,000 vines on 50 decimals could cost Tk 20-50 lakh to start. Only after its profitability is tested can the government supply cuttings to farmers, he said.
Md Sarwar Hossain, an entrepreneur in Jashore, grows vanilla under a shade canopy alongside mango and dragon fruit and now has about 150 vines. If 100 farmers were given cuttings, he says, 1,000 kg of vanilla beans could be ready for export in four to five years.
Fortune Business Insights puts the global vanilla market at more than USD 4.1 billion, possibly above USD 6.7 billion by 2034. Madagascar leads production and exports, shipping about USD 128.3 million worth in 2025.
Photo: B.navez / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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