Our story
Vanilla from Madagascar, from the families who grow it
Our story begins in Madagascar, between Mananara Nord and Maroantsetra, with producer families who have grown and prepared vanilla for generations.
We buy their vanilla already prepared, after a first conditioning. From their homes to our conditioning team in Antananarivo, and then to our stock in France, we stay close to the vanilla at every step.
How it started
It started with a request from growers
In 2018, world vanilla prices were nearing record highs, while Malagasy growers were selling their harvest to middlemen for a fraction of that price. It was growers who asked for help finding buyers who would pay them properly.
The company grew out of that request, not out of a business plan.
The early days were hard: a first export license application was turned down, and during the pandemic years some orders amounted to no more than a few kilos. The team settled in Antananarivo, obtained its license and learned a new trade: conditioning the growers’ vanilla itself.
A different way of buying
The producers decide when to sell
We never buy green vanilla at harvest time.
At that point, the grower has no bargaining power: the crop is perishable and has to be sold quickly. These families prepare their vanilla themselves and keep it at home. They sell it to us when they choose, in small quantities, as their needs arise: the start of the school year, a visit to the doctor. Since prices usually rise as the season goes on, it is the producer who benefits from that increase, not the buyer.
- 01
They prepare it
Producer families prepare their vanilla themselves.
- 02
They keep it
The prepared vanilla stays with them until they decide to sell.
- 03
They choose when to sell
They can sell in small quantities, as their needs arise.
Our producers
Built on long-term relationships
Our vanilla comes from producer families in the Mananara Nord to Maroantsetra region, who have grown it for three or four generations.
Over the years, they have become something like family to us.
They are grouped in a cooperative certified organic by Ecocert. Because this certification is expensive for small producers, we helped fund it.
The journey
To our producers’ village
To reach our producers, you first have to get to Maroantsetra, on the northeast coast of Madagascar. From there, you still need to take a small boat to a village on the banks of the Antainambalana River, upstream from Maroantsetra, where people grow vanilla, cloves and coffee, among other crops. That is where we buy vanilla from our producer families.
The route of our vanilla
- Producer villageFamilies prepare their vanilla and keep it at home.
- Antainambalana RiverBy small boat, downstream to Maroantsetra.
- MaroantsetraOn the northeast coast of Madagascar.
- AntananarivoFinal conditioning by our team.
- EuropeOur stock in France.
From bean to pouch
Months of work, bean by bean
Traditional Bourbon preparation
The vanilla is prepared using the traditional Bourbon method, with no mechanical shortcuts. Over these two to three months, the families already do good work:
- scalding, sweating and sun drying;
- the beans are turned by hand every day;
- the families sort, dry and rest their vanilla in wooden trunks themselves.
The final conditioning, about four weeks
To export only our highest-quality vanilla, our team applies a rigorous second treatment:
- incoming lots are weighed first;
- a second sorting, bean by bean, by hand, by smell, appearance and moisture;
- beans that need it go through a second drying, then they are massaged one by one to spread the seeds through the flesh and develop the oils;
- they rest a second time in wooden trunks, for about two weeks;
- each bean in a bundle is measured so the bundle is uniform, then sorted by grade.
Sealed, numbered, shipped
- vacuum sealing;
- pouches numbered by lot;
- shipment to our stock in France.
Why the extra work?
Every bean goes to the right use
The second sorting directs each bean to its use: whole bean, caviar, powder or extraction. The second rest in wooden trunks is what gives the vanilla its very mellow aroma, with no sharp notes.
Madagascar → Europe
Madagascar vanilla, stocked in Europe
Levanillier is the retail brand of Sustainable Concepts SARL. We stock our vanilla in a warehouse south of Paris so you receive it quickly anywhere in the European Union, with secure payment and customer service in French and English.
The organic certification (Ecocert) covers our vanilla beans, our vanilla powder and our vanilla caviar: you can check it yourself.
From Madagascar to your kitchen
Discover the vanilla behind the story
Explore our Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, prepared by our producer families and conditioned by our team in Antananarivo.