December has been a tricky month, but as the end of the year draws near, the light at the end of the tunnel is suddenly terribly close.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you to all of you who stepped up when we needed you and did not just solve the crisis for December, but give us breathing space for a couple of months.  We’ve said from the beginning that we needed 3m USD to achieve the vision, and we have not succeeded in half of that.  That may change shortly, and if it doesn’t, there is, as always, a backup plan that this finance gives us.

First, the vanilla.  We do get vanilla on 2-year vines, but they are rarely strong enough to support a crop.  The 3-year vines give us 20% crop, the 4 years 40% crop, and the yields are larger, albeit only a few achieving the 10kg we hope for.  Doing best are the 2-year trees which have been allowed to grow higher, with no fertiliser.  I do think we need to thin them dramatically, for even a tall Gliciridia isn’t capable of supporting the weight of a full crop.  This means we need to get more alternative cover trees, and this takes time without disrupting current successful vines.

Not only are there more vines flowering, but the flowering period is shorter, and the beans are bigger and longer.

Christmas has interfered with our first negotiated deal, done through an agent, for 500kg of vanilla next year.  Through an agent, but we have met with one of the principals.  This will be a major part of our high-grade vanilla, and one thing this year has shown us is that we cannot sell vanilla that is green when harvested, almost all Indonesian vanilla.  75% of this years’ crop is not achieving our standard.  Now, we are turning this vanilla into syrup and extract.

To ensure we get a better standard next year, we shall change our buying procedures and not buy any vanilla that is not at least partly yellow.  The top grade we purchase will be entirely yellow, very difficult to achieve, particularly for those farmers scared of theft.  We can still get yellow tipped vanilla, which we can get to a good standard, just not premium.

So, our secondary concern after money will be just how much vanilla we can get from our associates.  Setting up the co-operative will be essential for this.

In our factory we have one building that is complete and usable.  Rather than raise the 500j we need to rebuild the entire place, we shall focus on making this building not just into a factory, but one which complies with health standards.  This will enable us to get BPOM, the license to sell a food product.

Our main product, we don’t know what it will be.  But I suspect it will be our vanilla nectar, or the simple reason that it is so delicious.  Right now, too expensive when we buy sap from outside farmers, but our first tree has budded – we get the sap from the flower buds.  Soon, we shall have all we need.

Financial Outlook

There are a lot of discussions up in the air right now, time to talk about them when they are resolved.

Rex Sumner