Vanilla
An expertise acquired over one century
Touton started trading vanilla in the late 19th century. Nowadays, it remains a major player in the natural vanilla market, buying vanilla wholesale, exporting vanilla and linking vanilla producers with vanilla processors. Touton vanilla is sold to customers in the aromatic and perfume industry, as well as the food-processing sector.
Trade
Touton offers a variety of vanilla qualities to its customers.
GOURMET VANILLA
Black vanilla and vanilla TK. Interesting fact: the name “vanilla TK” originates from Touton! It stands for “Touton Quatrième,” later shortened to “T. Quatre” and then abbreviated to “TK” by Chinese processors.
Luxury vanilla with high moisture content, between 30% and 40%. It is chocolate brown to black in color and can have several reddish filaments (for the famous TK type). The vanilla pod is plump and supple, strongly scented, and flavorful. This type of vanilla is used mostly in artisanal cooking, baking and ice cream, delicatessen, and retail market.
INDUSTRIAL VANILLA (EXTRACTION GRADES)
Depending on its moisture level, whether split or whole this vanilla is drier than Gourmet Vanilla. It is brownish red in color and has a clean, pronounced vanilla scent.
This type of vanilla is mostly used for industrial purposes, either as an extract (in perfumes and aromatics) or directly in the food processing industry (in industrial pastries, ice creams and chocolates).
VANILLA DERIVATIVES
- Grounded vanilla beans: Made of whole vanilla pods grounded into a powder. Particles are uniform in size and the quality is high. Vanilla powder is highly sought after by bakers and artisans. Our powder is sterilised with dry steam.
- Vanilla seeds: Found inside the vanilla pod, vanilla seeds have no aromatic qualities and are generally used in combination with natural vanilla extracts for visual impact (black specks). The sterilised seeds,are either collected during the extraction phase, then dried or are harvested naturally at the source when the pods are prepared.
- Tailor made vanilla beans: we are able meet any specific requirements to meet our clients’ needs. Vanilla beans can be delivered cutted, grinded, steam sterilised, etc.
PACKAGING
Touton can adapt its vanilla packaging according to request. Our standard packaging formats are:
- Cardboard boxes with wax paper of 15 kg to 20 kg
- Vacuum packed for optimal preservation: only for beans, mostly gourmet grade from 250 g to 5 kg packages
- PE Sealed bags for seeds and powder from 250 g to 5 kg packages
- Sewed kraft bags with PE liner of 15 kg to 20kg
Sustainable sourcing
Touton was one of the first companies to join the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI) that was launched in 2015 by the Dutch Sustainability Initiative (IDH). This platform gathers supply-chain actors and aims to identify key areas for industry support to vanilla producers.
We can source vanilla beans with diverse certifications such as Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, or Organic.
As a supply chain manager, we build close relationships with local producers and communities on the ground. In partnership with local exporters and producers’ associations, we have set up sustainability programs to improve living income, and empower communities, whilst protecting forests and ecosystems, in Madagascar and most recently in Uganda.
We leverage on our capacity as a multicommodity buyer to support crop diversification programmes, especially in Uganda where we have set up our East African sustainability hub. Vanilla is one the main crops, together with cocoa, coffee, and chilli, that we encourage producers to grow to diversify and improve their living income. We remain available to co-construct customised and impactful sustainability programmes to meet both local producers’ needs and global processors CSR engagements.
Partnerships
