The local team is living and working year-round in the heart of the SAVA region where 80% of the world’s vanilla is grown. Symrise nurtures direct partnerships with more than 7000 vanilla farmers in 84 villages.
This brings growth and benefits to more than 34,000 people in the vanilla communities as well as transparency, traceability, safety and much-needed security of supply to customers and consumers.
Closest to the source
As the only company in its industry, Symrise maintains such a strong presence in the SAVA region. It engages with the vanilla farming communities on a daily basis.
The company and its team work on securing the best quality vanilla through its continued investments in the region. Building meaningful and sustainable relationships with farmers puts Symrise and its customers closest to the source of vanilla.
Symrise knows and respects the farmers, how they operate and what concerns them. The farmers in turn know and respect Symrise, and understand its need for quality vanilla. This collaboration adds transparency to the products’ origin and growing conditions, mitigates risk and provides certainty in a highly volatile and rapidly changing market.
This holistic approach of working directly with known and trusted farmers across the SAVA region in Madagascar and by owning the full transformation process from bean to flavor adds both precision and certainty.
The approach benefits the food and beverage industry clients and consumers alike. They are increasingly looking for safe sources of ingredients that conform to the highest standards and come with a commitment to responsible production and consumption, thus contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“Quality and sustainability are becoming increasingly important to create healthy and resilient supply chains,” says Yannick Leen, Global Competence Director, Vanilla Symrise. ”Vanilla ranks high among our strategic raw materials. With its complete backward integration, Symrise brings clear benefits to its partners at all stages of the production process."
"The benefits stretch across the entire value chain, from the vanilla farmers and their local communities, through producers of foods and beverages, who receive premium vanilla for their products, to the consumers who appreciate the superior taste and quality of our products and reassured by the transparency with which they are sourced.”
Fully integrated value chain for quality, sustainability and risk mitigation
To bring customers and consumers closest to the source of premium vanilla, Symrise runs the complete transformation process from bean to extract. This includes the Symrise vanilla curing facility in Antalaha, Madagascar, where Symrise carefully produces vanilla beans according to the traditional curing process.
The Symrise vanilla factory and research centre in Benavony, Madagascar provides facilities for the extraction of vanilla and other materials carefully grown and harvested by partner farmers. The in-country facilities are unique and enable distillation of essential oils as well as vanilla extraction and a quality control laboratory for fast, local analysis according to international standards.
Closest to the source also means closest to communities
By going closest to the source, Symrise guarantees security of supply of high-quality vanilla to its customers and consumers, and it also brings significant benefits to the farming communities. The company’s activities empower farmers to better care for their environment and allows their communities to become more resilient for the future.
“We have implemented the sustainable development program in 2012 with the objective of securing supply, in terms of volume as well as quality,” says Alban Bonnet, Sustainable Development Manager in Madagascar.
“From the very beginning, we have considered it key to create and maintain a trusting relationship with the farmers. What I love about this approach – I work directly with the farmers without any intermediaries. We move forward together, we improve together.”