General Mills and Häagen-Dazs announce sustainable vanilla sourcing program

General Mills and its ice-cream brand Häagen-Dazs have announced an initiative designed to foster greater economic vitality for smallholder vanilla farmers in Madagascar and ensure the availability of high-quality vanilla for future generations.

Häagen-Dazs and the General Mills Foundation will invest $125,000 over two years to benefit villages in Madagascar’s Sava region, home of the world’s highest quality vanilla. The commitment builds on General Mills’ century-long history of working closely with farmers around the world to promote sustainable agriculture.

Three global partners are involved in the program to help promote sustainable vanilla farming in Madagascar - General Mills will leverage its extensive supply chain and agronomic knowledge; vanilla supplier Virginia Dare will leverage its deep understanding of the vanilla market; and international humanitarian organisation CARE will leverage its extensive expertise fighting global poverty.

“At General Mills, our mission is nourishing lives,” explained Jerry Lynch, vice president and chief sustainability officer at General Mills. “Working to improve the lives of smallholder farmers by helping them accrue a greater share of the benefit from the crops they produce will also help ensure a sustainable and quality supply of vanilla for the future.”

The sustainable vanilla sourcing program is part of a larger, more comprehensive sustainable sourcing plan being advanced by General Mills. In 2011, the company completed a global assessment of the ingredients and materials it sources, developing an overall global sustainable sourcing model. Vanilla is one of 10 ingredients for which sustainable sourcing was prioritised.

Social and environmental benefits for Malagasy vanilla farmers

The Madagascar vanilla program will provide training and education to several hundred smallholder vanilla farmers focused on producing a more sustainable and higher quality vanilla crop. The training will teach value-added production techniques including yield improvement and vanilla curing. By adding value at the farm level, vanilla growers should be able to significantly increase their incomes, which should benefit entire communities in the region. The program also will focus on building vanilla curing and storage facilities.

Madagascar is the world’s leading producer of vanilla, responsible for more than 80% of the world’s production. For a majority of the estimated 80,000 Malagasy farmers, the vanilla crop is their only source of income.

“Contributing to the viability and sustainability of vanilla farming could have a significant impact on the lives of Malagasy growers, their communities and the environment,” said Steve Peterson, director of sourcing sustainability at General Mills. “Vanilla is integral to their way of life. From our knowledge of the region, we have come to understand that our ability to share our agronomic and supply chain expertise, while leveraging our financial resources, could help create a better, stronger, more sustainable supply of high quality vanilla, while raising living standards for the farmers who grow this important crop.”

General Mills also has worked to deepen the world’s understanding of the vanilla plant, which should additionally help benefit growers in Madagascar. The company is currently funding cutting-edge research, underway at the University of California-Davis, to map the vanilla genome. This will help lay the foundation for natural and conventional breeding improvements to increase yields, strengthen disease resistance or even to enhance flavour.

The vanilla initiative is just one of several General Mills programs directly benefiting smallholder farmers around the world. Their efforts to operate sustainably and ethically have been recognised by third-party groups such as Forbes and Corporate Responsibility magazines.

“But we know there is much more to be done,” said Lynch. “Even as we launch this new initiative in Madagascar, we know we must remain diligent and committed to elevating our sustainability efforts even further.”

More information about the program can be found in the video below.