Country Calendar features vanilla success

A successful food business made possible by innovative advances at Massey University featured on the television programme Country Calendar.

Watch the Country Calendar item.

The university developed extraction techniques, protocols for vanilla bean storage, and new product formulations for the Heilala Vanilla company which is enjoying the successes of the lucrative vanilla trade.

The company grows vanilla beans in Tonga for fresh and processed products sold in New Zealand and around the world. Massey University assisted with the vanilla extraction technology that takes place in a factory in Tauranga after pods are shipped from Tonga.

University staff, Associate Professor Marie Wong and Dr John Grigor, and students also developed formulations for new products, including a paste and syrup, that are proving popular. With two kilograms of fresh vanilla returning $3-500, both the fresh and processed markets are providing good returns for the New Zealand family led by John Ross.