By Jovita Mirembe

VANILLA farmers have vowed to continue growing the crop despite fluctuating prices on the world market.

In a meeting, which was attended by over 60 vanilla farmers at Mukono Agricultural Centre at Ntawo recently, the farmers said vanilla was first sold at sh500 per kilo before the price rose to sh100,000 due to high demand on the world market.

They said the high price was due to the scarcity of the crop in Malaysia, the highest grower of the crop in the world because of winter.

The farmers said vanilla currently costs sh5,000 per kilo, which is not a bad price although growing the crop is costly.

The chairman of Uganda Vanilla Exporters Association, Aga Sekalala Senior, appealed to farmers to improve the quality of vanilla to access big international markets.

“If Uganda’s vanilla is good for the export market, then the price and demand for it will be high. This will increase foreign exchange earnings hence improving farmers’ incomes,” Sekalala said.