Vanilla may get more expensive

If your favorite ice cream flavor is still vanilla, perhaps it's time to broaden those horizons a bit: A bad harvest in Madagascar has led to a price surge for its most prized crop, vanilla beans, reportsThe Guardian. This could lead to a rising tide of ice cream prices around the world.

Vanilla prices have been steadily rising since last year's poor Madagascan harvest, but the price has especially spiked over the past few months as supplies are dwindling. Food Business News says in 2011 the price of vanilla beans hovered around $20 a kilogram, and by this January they'd risen above $200 a kilogram.
In the spice world vanilla is second only in price to saffron, largely because of the difficult cultivation process: Each flower has to be pollinated by hand — something that's possible only on one particular day during the growing season — and once the pods are ready to be picked they must then be cured for as long as six months. Madagascar vanilla is famed for its creamy, sweet flavor that makes it especially popular with ice cream makers such as Haagen Dazs.