Mexico: They rescue vanilla cultivation in the Sierra de Veracruz

THE ROTARY. VERACRUZ. Since 2016, the Pedro and Elena Hernández Foundation, in technical and financial synergy with its allies, has carried out actions to promote the rescue of Mexican vanilla in the North of Veracruz. These efforts have focused on the provision of plants, technical advice and monitoring for the development of family vanilla orchards, with the aim of stimulating the local economy and supplementing family income through sustainable production alternatives. Today, 163 orchards have been established and are in different stages of development. Of these, 40 modules already have the appropriate maturity to produce gourmet quality vanilla, achieving an average harvest of 250 kg per year of this valuable product. In the past, the producers of the Sierra de Otontepec sold the green pod to coyotes or processors without benefiting from the added value derived from their processed product. After the intervention of the Foundation, they were made participants in said benefit, ...