Stock up the freezer, vanilla ice cream is in short supply

IT IS the last thing you want to hear with the hot weather here at last, but there is a shortage of vanilla ice cream.

Some retailers are taking the flavour off the menu because supply issues with vanilla pods are pushing up prices. Vanilla is already the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron.

Around 85 per cent of the world’s supply of vanilla pods comes from Madagascar. But natural disasters such as last year’s Cyclone Enawo, followed by political unrest and rioting, have sent prices through the roof. Since 2016, the price of just over 2lbs (1kg) of vanilla pods has gone up by 500 per cent to around £443 ($600) per kilo, meaning it now costs more than silver which is around £393 per kg.

Some ice cream sellers have reported previously paying £65 or £75 for 1kg of vanilla pods, and are now facing a bill of up to £580 per kg from suppliers.

Martin Orbach, who makes Shepherds ice cream, said: “Vanilla has gone up recently, but a lot of ingredients have gone up as well, such as nuts. I don’t see how it’s sustainable at the current rate. We just have to absorb the costs and every now and then put the price up. Some will degrade the quality of vanilla they use.”