[Request] I’m not a baker, is this statistic true?

No, one vanilla bean is between 3 € – 5 €. These are not 50.000 vanilla beans, more like 20 to 30. So it is worth between around 100 € – 200 €.

So the reference for Baking makes me think they are discussing diluting the Vanilla into a high quality product and the Quantity and quality of the beans implies a lot of something they can sell for very high value, something like gourmet cupcakes for instance. A recipe is from a very cursory search around 12 cupcakes. Another brief search implies you use one bean per recipe as it is equivalent to a tablespoon of extract. There appears to be somewhere between 40-60 pods here and each pod will contain 20-30 beans on average. On the low end we are looking at 800 batches of cupcakes and at the high end 1800. 12 cupcakes a batch gives 9,6000-21,600 cupcakes made. In order to try and hit a total sales of 250,000$ the sales price of cupcakes would need to be at the low end 26.03$ per cupcake. This is certainly high but that’s only if you hit the bare minimum for those projections. If you are at the high end it’s 11.57$ per cupcake(still expensive but more plausible). There are plenty of listings for cupcakes ranging from a dozen for 25$-68$. Meaning if all of the cards fall close to perfect and there is no waste and everything sells this would be enough Vanilla Beans to PRODUCE cupcakes that hit that price point.

I chose cupcakes because of a local gourmet store that sits downtown and has no trouble selling overpriced cupcakes to drunk bar guests. Baking is difficult but can be lucrative I guess.

Edit: got some numbers wrong and corrected those the conclusion is still off and don’t want to change after the fact to make it seem like it didn’t happen so I will correct it here.
With the above numbers it is outside the typical range for cupcakes unless you really upsell the product which would further eat into the profits. So to make it work one would either need to overcharge like crazy, based on current markets, or pick a more valuable baked good

Edit 2: I have since been informed of the difference between what I thought were pods and the actual beans my math is horribly wrong but a fun attempt so here it will stay

This is good vanilla. Not top quality vanilla, but good vanilla nevertheless. I know: I grow, harvest, boil, dry and sell my own vanilla, one of the best in the world. I have so much I cook almost daily with it. And yes, you can contact me for vanilla.

Joke is Hyperbole but thats still probably 250 if you buy them individually in the store. Had a pack with about 1/5th these that i sniped in France for 25 bucks and that was REALLY cheap

1. Weight Estimate:
– The image likely shows 100–150 vanilla beans.
– Vanilla beans typically weigh ~3 grams per bean, so the total weight is around 300–450 grams (0.66–1 lb).

2. Highest Market Price:
– In extreme market conditions, gourmet-grade organic vanilla beans from Madagascar or Tahiti have sold for up to $700 per pound in scarcity periods.

Maximum Price Calculation:
– 0.66 lb at $700/lb → $462
– 1 lb at $700/lb → $700

Absolute Ceiling Price:

If these beans are of the highest possible grade and sold at peak market prices, they could be worth up to $700. However, in rare boutique markets or direct-to-chef sales, prices could reach $800+ per pound, pushing the ceiling closer to $800–1,000 in an extreme scenario.

Buyer to dealer: I would like to buy a Lamborghini
Dealer: Yes sir, would you be financing or buying in cash?
Buyer: Vanilla beans

im not a chemist but i know vanilla co2 extract costs like $300 per 4oz or something. not sure how much extract you would get from these beans

I don’t think any of them are anywhere near that much. I think I paid 20 or 30 for a pound of Madagascar vanilla beans the last couple years. We only buy it like every year and a half. Although, I’ve recently learned of how much violence occurs over vanilla beans. So I might need to find another solution. I’m not sure.

This might be a few years old, vanilla hit $600/kilo in 2017. I remember bakers hunting down pure vanilla. Still hyperbole, but there was a scarcity a few years (checks date), crap, 8 years ago.

The main producer of Vanilla is Madagascar with around 3000 tons of black vanilla beans per year. Second comes Uganda with 500 tons and then Indonesia, Mexico and others who have combined 500 tons.

From 2021 – 2023 there was a fixed export price of 250 USD/kg from the Madagascan government, this was lifted in September 2023, the price has crashed to 50/60 USD/kg to now 30-40 USD/kg.

Usually, prices fluctuate between 50-800 USD/kg, hence the government action to regulate it.

Is that stuff worth 250k? Not at all.
You could fly to Madagascar, buy 30kg beans on the market, stuff them into your suitcase, pay the local authorities about 600-1000 USD as there is a limit per person in place and fly back and sell them. Probably could reach about 1k per kg if selling directly to restaurants etc.