Vanilla supplier has the goods to keep growing

Heilala Vanilla chief executive Jennifer Boggiss (right) with Sofaia Latu from the Tongan grower family that supplies the company. Photo / Supplied

Heilala Vanilla, New Zealand's only pure vanilla business, this month celebrates the 10th year since its first harvest in Tonga.

The anniversary will also see the Tauranga company's first shipment of coconut oil to Japan, a new product which has taken off over the past year.

The company also recently partnered with a new group of vanilla growers in Madagascar.

The additional source was selected because the vanilla beans match the flavour profile of the Tongan beans.

"Vanilla can be a temperamental crop," company co-founder and chief executive Jennifer Boggiss told the Bay of Plenty Times.

"It has to be dry and wet and hot at the right times. If all those things don't line up your yields can be lower."

Heilala is also aiming to get the vanilla industry in the Cook Islands off the ground, she said.

Vanilla growing is still in its early stages there, but Heilala hopes to include the Cook Islands in the future supply chain.

"Our priority remains with building the Tongan vanilla industry and supporting the communities of Tonga through various initiatives, including the Heilala Vanilla Foundation."

Tonga has also provided Heilala with its new product line, Heilala Coconut Oil, which has been developed since the company moved into new purpose-built premises in the Newnham Park Innovation Centre last May. The raw product is pressed and processed in Tonga, then arrives in Tauranga in solid form and is heated, bottled and labelled.

"It's gone crazy in Japan," she said.

"It fits really well into our current distribution channel."

The oil is predominantly used as a food ingredient and Ms Boggiss said there was increasing demand for natural, premium food products. Heilala company had not anticipated the strong demand for the coconut oil and was now considering options to expand capacity, she said.

Heilala, which had been air freighting vanilla to Japan, will send its first full container load ever to Japan this month, filled 60 per cent with coconut oil and 40 per cent with vanilla.