Why are Vanilla Beans so expensive?

The process to grow and cure Vanilla Beans is very time and labour intensive. It takes 3 years for a vanilla vine to bear fruit and once the vine flowers, each flower must be pollinated by hand within 12 hours of opening. After pollination, the vanilla pod will grow and take 9 months to reach maturity, at which point it must be hand picked at peak ripeness, right before the pod splits. After harvesting the vanilla pods, these green pods are then cured and stored for the Queen Vanilla flavour you know and love to develop. With more than 12 months needed to produce a single vanilla bean, it is a costly process but truly worth it for the wonderful flavour it brings to desserts and baking.