The Gujarat-based milk cooperative Amul, leading maker of ice-creams in the country, has expressed willingness to buy a stake in Vanilla India Producer Company Limited (Vanilco), a producer company based in Kochi that has about 2,500 farmers as members.
Amul has also agreed to buy Rs. 3.10 crore worth of natural vanillin extract from Vanilco. The order, biggest in Vanilco’s history, will result in the off-take of the entire stock of cured vanilla beans with the producer company, said Paul Jose, managing director of the company here.
The deal with Amul was clinched after discussions with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi, he added.
Amul officials assured Vanilco that the subsidy the cooperative gets from the government will be used for promoting natural vanillin, said a communication from Vanilco here.
It has also been decided that synthetic vanillin will be phased out from Amul ice-creams within one year, the communication added.
Mr. Paul Jose said that Vanilco had done its bit for vanilla farmers in the country and that the Union government should help them with a subsidy for those using natural vanillin in food products, especially ice-creams.
Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh had said recently in Kochi that the Spices Board had been asked to draw up a plan for a possible subsidy of Rs.15 crore over a three-year period for ice-cream makers in the cooperative and public sectors for using natural vanillin.
Source: The Hindu