It is the fruit of a “constant desire to innovate”. And in no way an effect of global warming that some farmers would like to anticipate. Since 2020, three Costa Rican members of the Maraîchers d'Armor (Prince of Brittany) have launched into vanilla cultivation. They have just completed their first harvest, distributed to professionals and to a cooperative store, under the name “Vanille de Bretagne”.
“It’s a project that saw the light of day with us, around Florian Josselin, the innovation manager,” rewinds the president of the cooperative society, Gilbert Brouder. The idea was to develop a new product that could accommodate “slightly old-fashioned” greenhouses and minimal heating.
Reunion partnership
The rest will have been just bibliographic research (a lot), exchange of good methods and a little patience. Growth is slow and drying is a matter of skill and patience. A partnership was thus forged with producers in Reunion. The island in the Indian Ocean produces one of the best vanilla in the world, and for Breton farmers it was not a question of reinventing the wheel.
“We went looking for advice and know-how. We had to learn how to fertilize it, to make it mature… In exchange, we provided knowledge from our own research on the nutritional contributions of the soil. They were very interested,” explains the cooperative.
The result is in line with expectations. 300 kg were harvested this year. A fleshy, very fatty and very aromatic vanilla, of the Planifolia variety, and compliant with the high quality standards expected by a “market that is still fairly open for this type of high-end product”.
A “difficult to measure” market
A product which has nevertheless already attracted certain restaurateurs and ice cream parlors in the Paimpol region. “That will be the main outlet, with the gift ideas of some works councils,” imagines President Brouder. And a little retail sales, through a few points of sale. Packaging in a glass tube has been designed, by the pod or by three.
For the Bretons, the market nevertheless remains “difficult to measure” and there is no question of competing with Malagasy or Indonesian production, for example. Because for Breton producers it is not a question of replacing tomato plants everywhere, in greenhouses, with vanilla plants.
“Not everyone will make it, it’s like strawberries, it’s a pleasure product. » However, avenues for improvement still exist, to promote 100% of local production. Like the reduction of “little vanillas” to powder.
