Soaring vanilla prices could make New Yorkers scream over the cost of ice cream this summer.
A bad harvest in Madagascar caused the price of vanilla beans to spike to about $400 per pound — up from about $40 per pound in 2011 — in America and world wide, according to Food Business News.
The bean shortage is a blow to Big Apple ice cream companies —including favorites such as Blue Marble, Ample Hills and Van Leeuwen — and some may be forced to raise prices, owners said.
“It’s a big deal. I got a letter from our vanilla supplier and nearly fell out of my chair — the cost had doubled in two months,” said Jennifer Dundas, owner of Brooklyn-based Blue Marble Ice Cream, which sells a popular Organic Vanilla flavor.
“I may have to raise prices. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see ice cream companies raise prices across the board on scoops and pints in grocery stores,” she said.
Ice cream makers may increase the price of all flavors, not just vanilla, to account for the bean shortage, she said.
Other firms may fudge ingredients with fake vanilla substitutes such as the synthetic compound vanillin —but that puts the freeze on flavor, said Brian Smith, owner of Ample Hill Creamery.
“The difference in taste is huge. It’s the difference between artificial and real,” said Smith, who refuses to change his ingredients.
Instead, he’ll eat the cost of the increase — right as warm weather ice cream season hits, he said.
“It’s a drag. It would be a lot easier to stomach if it were winter. Anyone who uses real beans will feel an impact,” Smith, who is which is losing hundreds dollars per week to make its popular Vanilla Bean flavor.
Firms that make everything from cookies to cakes could feel a financial pinch, but ice cream makers will likely suffer the most — and could pass off the expense to shoppers, experts said.
“It’s negative for people who love ice cream. Fake vanilla just doesn’t taste as good,” said Ben Van Leeuwen, owner of the Manhattan-based Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, which uses vanilla beans from
New Guinea and won’t change its recipe.
A fairly successful vanilla bean crop in Madagascar is about 2,000 tons but this year’s yielded only about 1,300 tons because farmers harvested the beans too early.
Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron.
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