Living Income Reference Prices for Vanilla from Uganda and Madagascar

This report presents an updated study to inform a revision of the Fairtrade Living Income Reference Price for vanilla from Madagascar. A Living Income Reference Price is the minimum price needed for smallholder vanilla farmers to earn sufficient net income to afford a decent standard of living, given certain parameters of productivity and farm size. The 2024 study compiles updated costs of a decent standard of living, as well as the costs of sustainable production for vanilla farmers in Madagascar. The research involved 480 interviews with smallholder vanilla farmers from 16 villages in the SAVA region of Madagascar (Nov – Dec 2023) and triangulated with focus group discussions and market surveys. Some key assumptions (sustainable vanilla yields, a “full employment” farm size, and labour needed to achieve sustain- able yields) remained unchanged and are based on the study conducted in 2019. This study takes an additional step of clustering farming households into four groups based on the gender of their household head as well as their certification status: 1) female-headed Fairtrade households, 2) male-headed Fairtrade households, 3) female-headed non-Fairtrade households, and 4) male-headed non-Fairtrade households. The updated Living Income Reference Price, as shown in the 2024 explanatory note under supporting documents below, is calculated as €10.17 (48,979 Malagasy Ariary or MGA) per kilo of green vanilla at farm gate. Previous studies and the accompanying explanatory notes are listed below as supporting documents. The original study and first reference prices for Madagascar and Uganda were published in 2019. Updates for Madagascar were published in 2021, warranted by the dynamic pricing and production situation. The original 2019 prices are still valid for Uganda.