Vanilla Sustainability

We at Stavoren Trading care about both the products we sell and the farmers producing it. We agree with the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI) and their goals and are making their goals our own. We are now sourcing our vanilla beans directly from the Farmers themselves and looking forward to using our local resources to make our relationships mutually beneficial both financially and sustainably.

SVI's primary goals are found on their website and listed here:

  • Expanding the supply of traceable and sustainably produced vanilla
  • Improving incomes and livelihoods of vanilla farmers (economic sustainability of producers)
  • Stabilizing / improving quality

The initial priorities of the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative strategy will be to contribute to these goals by supporting companies to scale successful supply chain partnership programs, where needed to invest in pre-competitive programs that complement the company led programs, and to improve sector governance, bringing a clear and organized industry voice and support to Madagascar to work in public-private cooperation.

What sustainability means to us

As evidenced by the naming of our company after our surname and the area our ancestors emigrated from, we care about our heritage. Thankfully, Holland has a rich heritage in sustainability (think wind power and bicycles). In fact, one of the biggest names in food sustainability, the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), comes from the Netherlands, and the goals we espouse come from the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI). 

We believe that when our suppliers are successful we are successful. Our relationship with our vendors, the farmers, is therefore inherently symbiotic. 

While sustainability starts with how, where, and with whom we source our products, it ends with how we package and ship them

  • We ship our beans in reusable/recyclable glass bottles
  • Instead of shipping our beans in plastic, we employ reusable bottle stoppers
  • Instead of bubble-wrap, we wrap our bottles in recycled cardboard