Australian Vanilla Plantations

Australian Vanilla Plantations aims to commercialise vanilla research completed by an Australian university and create a viable vanilla industry. In order to achieve this goal the company designed and created a new micro greenhouse that was easy to operate, sustainable, robust, affordable and highly efficient. This resulted in the Australian Greenhouse Grow Dome which is easily constructed, safe, and operates in a broad range of geographical and climate conditions.

Current commercial activities include the development of the first vanilla plantation with 20 domes in NSW with other sites in Qld. The Grow Dome significantly reduces the barriers to entry for small and medium commercial growers to enter the market. It also provides a very good revenue stream as the yield and quality is very high as opposed to traditional and open cropping methods.

Whilst the grow dome is a unique greenhouse and performs extremely well additional innovations such as the unique rotational trellis with specifically designed growing structures for vanilla and automation ensures targeted outcomes such as growth or reproduction can be achieved with minimal effort.

The company continues to invest in research and development and continues to collaborate with government departments, industry bodies, academic institutions and government research organisations. Current research programs include the study of soil, greenhouse structures and systems, vanilla growth and reproduction using natural methods as well as light, current open cropping methods by farmers internationally, natural and organic shipping and handling methods of fresh vanilla beans.

Due to the amount of international interest with the grow dome project, and knowledge concerning the cultivation of vanilla, AVP has setup agents to operate vanilla buying desks to purchase fresh vanilla beans for processing in Australia, using the most advance techniques to ensure the highest quality for the resulting product.