Vanilla is a spice consisting of the fruit of certain tropical creeper orchids of Mesoamerican origin.
The plants cultivated for the production of vanilla are the only orchids cultivated for human consumption. To obtain a richly aromatic spice, the cultivation and processing of vanilla requires long and attentive care from farmers. This makes it, by weight, one of the highest value agricultural food products in the world.
It was the planters from Réunion who introduced, around 1880, the cultivation of vanilla to Madagascar. Today, Madagascar produces 60 to 80% of the vanilla in the world.