# With a harvest of just 60 g per plant, Vanilla Brasil targets the global market for the world's second most valuable spice

An operation in the interior of Bahia combines advanced agricultural technology and hand cultivation to explore the world's second most expensive spice.

- Section: Agribusiness
- Published: October 19, 2026
- Address: https://ceoone.com.br/en/article/with-a-harvest-of-just-60-g-per-plant-vanilla-brasil-targets-the-global
- Em português: https://ceoone.com.br/artigo/com-safra-de-apenas-60g-por-planta-vanilla-brasil-mira-mercado-global-.md

![Two men side by side in a wooded garden, one in a black T-shirt and the other in a green shirt and cap](https://pub-b80e49b2737940b3ab5d3f20d0578192.r2.dev/artigos/com-safra-de-apenas-60g-por-planta-vanilla-brasil-mira-mercado-global--foto.webp)

Photo: Reproduction/Vanilla Brasil

## Key points

- Vanilla Brasil, in Itapetinga, Bahia, pollinates by hand each vanilla flower, which opens a single day a year: each plant yields about 60 g of green beans.
- With climate-controlled greenhouses and drip irrigation, production went from 700 kg to 1.5 tons of beans; the goal is R$ 16 million in revenue, double the previous cycle.
- It supplies Bacio di Latte, St. Marche, Oba Hortifruti and Casa Santa Luzia, and opened a commercial center in Miami to sell in the United States.

The Vanilla Brasil farm, founded in 2016 in the municipality of Itapetinga, in the interior of Bahia, has become the country's leading reference in the commercial cultivation and processing of Vanilla planifolia and native species. The project, created by agronomist Aderbal Castro and his son Tarcísio Machado, stands out in precision agribusiness because of the plant's extreme biological complexity. It is a climbing orchid that takes three to four years to reach reproductive maturity and flowers only once a year, for a single day. In that short window of a few hours, each flower must be pollinated by hand, resulting in an average yield of just 60 grams of green beans per plant per cycle.

To overcome the challenges of the semi-arid climate and ensure the planting's agronomic vigor, the company developed a protected cultivation system under climate-controlled greenhouses with strict microclimate control, high-precision drip irrigation and relative humidity monitoring. Soil nutrition combines organic inputs and applied biotechnology to strengthen the orchids' root systems against soil pathogens such as the Fusarium fungus. This infrastructure increased the number of plants per hectare and sped up the harvest transition, allowing production to jump from 700 kilos to 1.5 tons of beans in a single crop cycle.

Beyond the challenges in the field, adding value to the product depends on a meticulous post-harvest curing process that lasts up to six months. The green beans go through successive stages of heat scalding, sweating in insulated boxes, sun drying and maturing in a controlled environment to trigger the enzymatic conversion of aromatic precursors into natural vanillin. This artisanal bioprocessing cuts the fruit's weight by up to 80%, but concentrates essential oils and organoleptic compounds of very high value on the international market, raising the processed bean to the level of a luxury spice.

To make commercial scale viable and support the goal of reaching R$ 16 million in revenue (double the previous cycle), Vanilla Brasil invested in verticalizing its industrial operation. Instead of focusing only on selling dried beans, the company began processing the raw material into its own line of high-purity derivatives, such as concentrated extracts, seed pastes and pure vanilla powder. This industrial diversification reduced its dependence on agricultural seasonality and opened the door to corporate contracts for continuous supply to the food industry.

The quality standard and traceability of the Bahian ingredient have attracted major brands in gastronomy and high-end retail. One of the company's commercial milestones was its supply contract with the Bacio di Latte gelato chain, established after a rigorous technical approval process that took about four years. In specialty retail, the brand's products have won space in premium chains such as St. Marche, Oba Hortifruti and the traditional Casa Santa Luzia, meeting growing demand from consumers and chefs for natural ingredients without added synthetic vanillin.

The farm's consolidation in Itapetinga also symbolizes an important transition for Northeastern agribusiness, historically centered on extensive cattle ranching and agricultural commodities with low value per hectare. By proving that the integration of agronomic engineering, microclimate control and industrial processing can turn vanilla into a very profitable crop, Vanilla Brasil has caught the attention of investors in the specialty food sector. The model shows itself to be viable for diversifying the regional production base and creating skilled jobs in rural areas.

In the medium and long term, the company is focused on taking its brands abroad to earn revenue in hard currency. It has set up a logistics and commercial hub in Miami to supply distributors in the United States and is advancing negotiations with commercial partners in Japan, Italy, Chile and Paraguay. At the same time, Vanilla Brasil continues agronomic research to introduce new vanilla varieties with higher vanillin content and to explore uses of its pure extracts in clean beauty and food supplements.

Vanilla Brasil's path shows how combining agricultural biotechnology, rigorous post-harvest processing and partnerships with major retailers can turn a crop with very low physical yield into a highly profitable industrial asset. By putting Brazilian vanilla on the counters of the country's leading chains and on the international market, the company opens a new frontier for specialty agribusiness in Brazil.

## Sources and editorial notes

- Reference reporting: Exame, Globo Rural, Canal Rural, Valor Econômico.

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