KOCHI: Vanilla India Producer Company Limited (Vanilco), a producer company in which farmers have a significant share, is offering Vanilla Call Option, which the company executives claimed here on Thursday as the first in the world.

Through the call option, a vanilla buyer can book a vanilla lot by paying a premium and take delivery of the lot on a specific future date on a specific price. The premium depends on the market price.

Initially, the option is being made available for three months. The period will be extended in the near future, said Paul Jose, managing director of Vanilco, at a press conference here on Thursday.

He said that the price of vanilla was expected to improve in the future considering the increasing demand for natural vanillin, the world's favourite flavouring agent.

Opportunity to hedge

Mr. Jose said that the Vanilla Call Option offered the buyers a hedge against future risk in price fluctuations in the international market and that Vanilco was in a position to supply as it held substantial quantity of vanilla.

The company had also entered into agreements with major ice-cream producers like Milma and Amul (brand owned by Anand Milk Union, Gujarat) for supply of natural vanillin. During the recent months, Vanilco sold 2.5 tonnes of vanilla to the STCL.

In a bid to popularise vanilla, Vanilco has diversified into various products including vanilla-flavoured tea and coffee, natural vanilla soap and incense sticks, natural vanilla sugar, natural vanilla virgin oil and vanilla powder.

Mr. Jose said that Vanilco was the first producer company in the field of vanilla processing and originated out of a desire to support farmers in the face of extreme volatility in the price of vanilla.

There were about 2,500 farmers engaged in producing vanilla around Kochi, he added.

Vanilco's research and development wing had succeeded in extracting vanillin by super critical fluid extraction method.

He said that the Mexican Humming Bird, now extinct, represented the spirit of Vanilco that is engaged in giving a new future to vanilla-growers by making natural vanilla popular.

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