High vanilla costs won't force Island ice cream makers into changing their recipes

Prince Edward Island businesses Cows Creamery and Holman's Ice Cream Parlour say they're going to keep using vanilla in their ice cream as they always have, despite the spike in price for the exotic ingredient. 

Vice-President of Cows Chad Heron says the company is used to the fluctuating costs of vanilla — though this may be a little more extreme.  

Heron said the company's recipes won't be changing.

"We've been using the same type of vanilla all along. It's critical to what we're doing here," he said.

"So, we don't really have discussions, you know, 'Can we not have it?' That's not really on the table. Or 'Can we use another ingredient?' That's not up for debate here."

Ken Meister, the owner of Holman's in Summerside says though the latest increase in cost is significant, there's no way he'll be using less real vanilla in his products. 

"We're not going to change our recipes or use less. People want vanilla to taste like vanilla. They want vanilla in their vanilla milkshakes, and we're not going to use an alternate product."

Short supply to blame

Heron explained Cows uses vanilla from the island nation of Madagascar and that small changes in price are felt greatly by the business.

"All we can do is try to plan for that as best we can, set our pricing, commit to the quality, tell the customer we're not jeopardizing anything on that end, and then try to weather it," he explained.

According to Industry Canada trade data, Canadians imported more than two-thirds of its vanilla last year from Madagascar. They spent roughly $42.9 million on the flavour, almost four times the cost of vanilla imported in 2013.

The high cost of vanilla is being blamed on a short supply. Last spring, cyclone Enawo tore through Madagascar, where about 80 per cent of the world's vanilla is grown.

"Vanilla has fluctuated like this in the past with other storms or political unease," Heron said.

Cost of ice cream up

Cows sets its ice cream prices each year in the spring, factoring in all costs including labour, fuel, and ingredients like vanilla.

This year, Cows ice cream prices have gone up by about 10 per cent compared to last, and will remain the same until next year, Heron explained.

"It's up a little bit," Heron said. "Which is obviously partly and definitely due to the vanilla increase in price for sure, but we use dozens of other ingredients as well which all fluctuate in the world market," adding that the rise in minimum wage and labour costs were also factored in.

Meister explained that while Holman's did adjust its prices this year, it was to reflect an overall price change from when the parlour first opened, not to reflect the cost of vanilla. 

'Trying to ride it out'

Overall, Meister said he estimates that his vanilla costs are up about $500 a month.

He added that he's hoping it's a temporary fluctuation.

"We're trying to ride it out," he said. 

Both he and Heron expect to see the prices go back down.

"All we can do is hope that they avoid storms, they avoid any political issues, a good crop year, and then the price will come back down," Heron said.

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