Crop-Vanilla
pp. 72-73 · Read in the full issue
Rarotonga Tries A "Millionaire"
Vanilla, a crop which has made millions and millions of francs for French Polynesian growers over the past century or so, has recently been introduced
to Rarotonga.
THE Cook Islands News reports that one planter on Rarotonga, confident that there is a good future in vanilla-growing, now has almost an acre of land under vanilla vines and that many of the plants are doing well.
The planter’s optimism is probably justified, as Mr. Aime Grimald, then Governor of French Polynesia, told the local Territorial Assembly in May last year that French Poly nesia’s vanilla production, along with the other traditional industries, copra and phosphates, had declined markedly in recent times. During the previous 12 months, he said, it had dropped by 16.2 per cent. ( PIM, July, 1964, p. 53).
According to the Cook Islands News, French Polynesia’s vanilla crops are still in difficulties, due to a plant disease.
Vanilla, a species of orchid which the ancient Aztecs of Mexico cul tivated under the name of Tlilli, was introduced to Moorea, Tahiti’s
sister island, by a French Governor, M. Bonard, in 1852.
Twenty-seven years later, an agri cultural commission which examined properties on Moorea and Tahiti, reported that vanilla was growing extensively on both islands and that “all the vanilla plants of Moorea, and even some of those on Tahiti” probably originated from those introduced by M. Bonard.
By World War I, French Poly nesia was producing half of the world’s vanilla crop, the rest com ing from Mexico.
Round about the end of World War I, Tahiti’s vanilla vines were attacked by a disease which killed about half of them. But by 1924, annual production was up to 852 tons, worth 28 million francs. Seven years later, however, the year’s pro duction of 529 tons yielded only 793,000 francs.
The most recent production figures available for French Poly nesia, with values in brackets, are: 1954 130 tons (120,710,000 fr.) 1956 162 tons ( 97,584,000 fr.) 1957 177 tons (128,757,000 fr.) 1959 177 tons (224,500,000 fr.) 1961 195 tons (175,914,000 fr.)
Time-Consuming
The conditions required for suc cessful cultivation of vanilla are a warm, equable and humid climate, still atmosphere, and a rainfall of 80 to 100 inches, well distributed throughout the year.
In Mexico, the flowers of the wild vanilla vine are fertilised by bees and humming birds. But under plantation conditions, these natural agencies cannot be relied on—even in Mexico.
In French Polynesia most of the flowers appear during June and July—the driest part of the year— and they have to be individually impregnated, or “married,” by hand.
This is a long and tedious business, as is the process of drying the long, dark vanilla beans.
On Tahiti and Moorea, the Tahitians frequently grow the vanilla but the “marrying” and dry ing jobs are left to the more patient Chinese.
In Tahiti some people drink the local rum with a couple of vanilla pods floating in it; while on Moorea, guests at the Hotel Aimeo are some times given vanilla pods as souvenirs of their visit. The pods, which have a sickly sweet smell that lasts for ages, are probably the quickest nostalgia-producers that any hotel proprietor ever dreamed up for his customers.