International Flavors & Fragrances India Ltd (IFF), the Indian arm of the world's leading manufacturer of flavors and fragrances International Flavors & Fragrances Inc has
recorded $2 million export in vanilla beans this year, thus becoming the single largest exporter of cured beans of vanilla from India. Though most of the company's export is made to its parent company based in the US about 10 percent of it goes to the retail market in the UK.

IFF was the first to project India on the world map as an exporter of vanilla beans by making its first sale in 1991. The worldwide market for vanilla is estimated to be around the $200 million mark. With Madagascar and Indonesia topping the list as the leaders in vanilla exporting nations, the Spices Board of India is now targeting to place India in the top three rankings.

"Currently we are in the business of exporting the cured beans of vanilla. We want to get into making the essence", says Jyothi Ramamohan, general manager, R&D, (Natural Products & Biotechnology), International Flavors & Fragrance India Ltd. The demand for both the beans and the essence in India is not very significant since synthetic products are available here at lower costs. "Just because of the availability of poor quality products, the rest of the manufacturers of vanilla could only contribute Rs 30 lakh in export revenue whereas we exported worth $2 million ," added Ramamohan.

IFF India has around 200 descriptions of vanilla and it has exported nearly 50 tons of vanilla over three years. The Spices Board has given the company the citation of excellence in Spice Exports. The R&D unit of IFF is now focussing on natural aromatics. As of now IFF has made 14 aromatic products. IFF is not into gene manipulation, which according to the company is not organic and would rather manufacture products through the tissue culture process.

IFF India was initially Bush Boake Allen Inc, a global producer of fragrances, flavors and aromatic chemicals. In the year 2000, International Flavors & Fragrances Inc acquired Bush Boake Allen Inc.