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A poor harvest on the island of Madagascar, from where half the world's vanilla beans come, has seen the price go up by nearly 150 percent. The spice is the second most expensive in the world after saffron because of its labour-intensive cultivation. Tim Ecott, author of Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Luscious Substance, spoke to Carolyn Quinn about the "misunderstood" spice. (Photo: A worker sorts vanilla. Credit: Getty Images)
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