Vanilla Farms
Based in Aberdeenshire, Vanilla Farms is reimagining how vanilla is grown, cured and celebrated. By partnering with smallholder farmers in Uganda, Indonesia, Mexico and beyond, the business brings in fresh vanilla every week and cures each bean in Scotland with scientific precision.
For the past four years, the business has been working towards offering truly home-grown Scottish vanilla by cultivating vanilla planifolia orchids in Scotland, developing proprietary indoor farming systems that recreate the perfect growing environment – and here Gillian Lane, co-founder of Vanilla Farms, discusses some of the challenges they have faced and the importance of innovation within food and drink product development.
Scottish Food & Drink September
Vanilla is one of the most valuable, but also most volatile crops in the world. Supply chains are opaque, and quality is inconsistent. The challenge was how to build a system that guarantees both flavour and fairness. We’ve done that by diversifying our grower partnerships across multiple regions, taking the curing process into our own hands in Scotland, and pioneering our own indoor vanilla cultivation.
Growing vanilla in Scotland wasn’t obvious at first, but by embracing controlled-environment agriculture and precision food science, we’ve turned an unlikely location into a strength, giving us the ability to stabilise supply and elevate flavour in a way the traditional model never could.
Innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Vanilla production has barely changed in 500 years, but in Scotland we’re combining controlled-environment farming, regenerative grower partnerships, and scientific curing to transform what vanilla can be.
Our research and development into growing vanilla planifolia indoors is a world first, protecting an at-risk crop while also creating a sustainable, year-round supply. And by curing every bean here in Scotland with scientific precision, we can preserve more of vanilla’s 250 plus natural flavour compounds, unlocking complexity that’s usually lost in the traditional system.
For chefs and producers, it means consistent supply, transparent origin, and flavour that’s richer and more complex than they’ve ever experienced. For the environment, it means building regenerative partnerships with smallholder farmers abroad while also pioneering a future where vanilla can be grown closer to where it’s consumed.
Our Scottish cultivation project is a big part of this – reducing food miles, showcasing the potential of precision agriculture, and future-proofing vanilla against the growing risks of climate change in tropical regions. It’s about making vanilla both better and more sustainable.
Consumers today expect ingredients that are authentic, traceable, and sustainable. Innovation is what makes that possible – we look forward to unlocking new stories, flavours, and experiences that will get the industry and food and drink fans alike excited about high quality vanilla and its exceptional versatility.
For us, innovation means turning Scotland into a home for vanilla; not just curing beans from our global partners with extraordinary precision but also growing our own orchids here and creating a new category of terroir-driven vanilla. It’s about taking a familiar ingredient and showing the world just how extraordinary it can be.
Our batch-led vanilla means chefs can choose pods with specific flavour profiles, just like they would with wine or whisky. It also allows them to tell a richer story on the plate, combining origin, terroir and craft.
