Prova president highlights Asian expansion alongside sustainable vanilla sourcing from Madagascar

10 Apr 2023 --- Prova recently announced the creation of its industrial site in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of its “Prova Tomorrow” strategic plan, which aims to strengthen development in high-potential geographies like the US and Asia, as well as to gradually empower the regions on an operational level.

In conversation with FoodIngredientsFirst, president Muriel Acat-Vergnet, third-generation of the Prova family, talks about its new Asian development, the company’s long-term vanilla sourcing in Madagascar, and how sustainability is crucial to the company’s ethos.

“Prova is a family, privately-owned company that has existed for 77 years. Our whole story begins with vanilla extraction. At the start, we were solely doing vanilla extraction. Over the course of time, we have expanded and diversified but remain specialized in sweet brown flavors,” she says.

Muriel Acat-Vergnet, president of Prova, is third-generation of the Prova family.“We chose not to be a generalist but to be focused instead of breaking wide. We prefer to have a shorter portfolio that goes further in each of our specialties to offer more possibilities inside each of our expertise.”

Prova is international and has subsidiaries in the US, Latin America and Asia. The French-based company is building a new plant in Thailand which will distribute in Asia from there.

“It will focus on flavors and extracts, all of our specialties,” Acat-Vergnet explains. “The extraction will still be here in France because we have a headquarters near Paris and two plants; one has been recently acquired in the south of Tore, Lyon, where we will do some other blending and special products.” 

Acat-Vergnet expands on how Asia is a big market for Prova, which has been operating there for around two decades. This new production site in Bangkok is part of a global investment and expansion plan in France and internationally.

“We only had a distribution model and decided to get closer to our clients. The whole logistics are complicated, and managing such complexity was becoming a roadblock for us, so that’s why we decided to get closer to the market,” Acat-Vergnet underscores. 

“We can ship from Thailand in the region and make logistics easier, faster and closer.”  

Construction of the production site is underway and is expected to be completed later this year. 

The new 5,000m² factory affirms the company’s expansion in “a dynamic economic zone,” where consumer habits constantly change. This location will be aligned with the principles of reducing Prova’s carbon footprint as part of its internal Corporate Social Responsibility policy.

“Our strategy is to become even more international and give more power to the regions where we sell. The US is our biggest market after Europe. Bigger than Asia. We’ve settled there for more than 35 years and have good experience of that market. That’s also a place where we expand and where we plan to implement production,” he notes. 

Sustainable sourcing in Madagascar
Prova supports around 1,140 farmers via its sustainable sourcing programs in 19 different villages in Madagascar. It has been sourcing vanilla from Madagascar for many years, building up a sustainability model and a long-term strategy that helps secure a fair price for farmers, trying to keep balance in a very volatile market. 

“The sustainability program is at the heart of our strategy. We have a commitment with Madagascar; we are one of the lead buyers of vanilla worldwide and we have a role to play in that region. We are working with one of the poorest countries in the world. They suffer from a very hectic market because, in the vanilla industry, there are many ups and downs; it’s very unstable,” Acat-Vergnet explains.Prova is one of the lead buyers of vanilla worldwide. 

“We want to prevent the difficult times when prices crash. The growers are the ones who do most of the job; that’s why we invest locally with farmers and associations, local buyers, and exporters who organize the whole supply chain. By operating these shorter supply chains, we know the villages we are investing in, and we invest in social programs locally, including in health and education.” 

We are there for the long run; it’s not a one-shot situation. This is a long-term investment and commitment, but we need our clients to come on the journey with us.”

Small-scale and artisanal 
Acat-Vergnet explains how vanilla grows on family-run and small-scale farms, providing a lot of know-how and techniques. There aren’t big planter organizations; it’s much more “artisanal,” and farmers “know exactly what they are doing.”

“A couple of years ago, we organized a platform called Sustainable Vanilla Initiative (SVI). This platform gathers the whole extraction industry worldwide, including global flavor houses such as Firmenich, IFF, Givaudan and Mane, and we’ve been there since the beginning of the steering committee.” 

“The purpose of this initiative is to sit down around a table as the clients in the industry and see how we can work better with our supply chains, how we can improve things, how we can help because we depend on it. Madagascar has 70-80% of the market; it’s prominent.”

“Our main project is to foster sustainable sourcing. We aim to source 50% of our vanilla in the next six to seven years as fully sustainable. But for this, we need to gain more customers, which I’m keen to encourage,” Acat-Vergnet concludes.  

By Gaynor Selby