<P> Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the chief producer of vanilla . In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in hopes of producing vanilla there . After Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers quickly by hand, the pods began to thrive . Soon, the tropical orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles, and Madagascar, along with instructions for pollinating them . By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, about 80% of world production . According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Indonesia is currently responsible for the vast majority of the world's Bourbon vanilla production and 58% of the world total vanilla fruit production . </P> <P> The market price of vanilla rose dramatically in the late 1970s after a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands . Prices remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla . In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded . Prices dropped 70% over the next few years, to nearly US $20 per kilogram; prices rose sharply again after tropical cyclone Hudah struck Madagascar in April 2000 . The cyclone, political instability, and poor weather in the third year drove vanilla prices to an astonishing US $500 / kg in 2004, bringing new countries into the vanilla industry . A good crop, coupled with decreased demand caused by the production of imitation vanilla, pushed the market price down to the $40 / kg range in the middle of 2005 . By 2010, prices were down to $20 / kg . Cyclone Enawo caused in similar spike to $500 / kg in 2017 . </P> <P> Madagascar (especially the fertile Sava region) accounts for much of the global production of vanilla . Mexico, once the leading producer of natural vanilla with an annual yield of 500 tons of cured beans, produced only 10 tons in 2006 . An estimated 95% of "vanilla" products are artificially flavored with vanillin derived from lignin instead of vanilla fruits . </P> <P> Vanilla was completely unknown in the Old World before Cortés . Spanish explorers arriving on the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the early 16th century gave vanilla its current name . Spanish and Portuguese sailors and explorers brought vanilla into Africa and Asia later that century . They called it vainilla, or "little pod". The word vanilla entered the English language in 1754, when the botanist Philip Miller wrote about the genus in his Gardener's Dictionary . Vainilla is from the diminutive of vaina, from the Latin vagina (sheath) to describe the shape of the pods . </P>

Where does vanilla come from in the world