The key facts

  • Madagascar's forests shrank by 27% in 1990–2025 (FAO); harvesters often cut down pepper vines entirely
  • The pepper sells in France for 150–200 euros per kg; there is no export tracking system
  • Entrepreneur Olivier Ramaherison is testing growing vines on terraces without support trees

A pepper popular with chefs under threat

Voatsiperifery, a rare wild pepper that grows only in Madagascar and is highly prized by international chefs, faces an uncertain future — partly because of its own popularity and the destruction of the forests where it grows. The vines, with their delicate aromatic flavour, climb toward the canopies of the island's natural forests, which, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), shrank by 27% between 1990 and 2025. To gather the fruits without climbing, harvesters often tear out the vine entirely, and frequently the trees it grows on as well, worsening the deforestation.

A chef's recognition and the price of the spice

French chef Olivier Roellinger, who first encountered the spice 30 years ago, told AFP: 'Sometimes I think it would have been better if I had not made it famous.' According to him, the pepper struck him with 'a punch of piperine' with notes of peat, resin and citrus; it is especially good in a fruit salad. Roellinger, founder of the spice boutique Epices Roellinger, is involved in efforts to certify authentic pepper based on strictly regulated harvesting zones in Madagascar, but, as he said, he has no illusions about these rules being circumvented. Malagasy pepper sells in France — the main export market — for 150–200 euros (169–225 dollars) per kilogram.

A disappearing forest near the village of Ambongamarina

The village of Ambongamarina, northeast of Antananarivo, found itself two decades ago at the centre of the excitement around a pepper distinguished by its characteristic woody 'tail' — the remnant of the stem. Farmer Maminiaina Rabearison pointed from the ridge on which the village stands into the distance: 'Until 2010–2012, there was still natural forest there.' According to him, people would go into the forest for 10–20 weeks a year, and every week they sold at least 100 kilograms to a buyer at the market. The buyer has long stopped coming: harvests have fallen as the forest is destroyed by bush fires, charcoal production, slash-and-burn agriculture, and arson during protests against the distant central government. The destruction of the vines forces harvesters to go ever deeper into the forest. 'Now, to find pepper, you have to walk almost a whole day,' said 51-year-old farmer Erinaire Randrianarimanga from the same village. The village is only 120 kilometres from the capital, but the journey by four-wheel-drive vehicle takes five hours.

No tracking and a bet on organic

According to Mima Chatonneau, co-founder of the export company Jacarandas, the country has no national system for tracking the distribution, harvesting and export of this valuable pepper. 'Today we do not know whether the resource is becoming scarce,' she said, calling for 'traceability' to determine export volumes. In the absence of a regulatory framework, Jacarandas is betting on organic pepper, which already makes up a third of its exports: 'For organic products, traceability is mandatory,' Chatonneau explained.

Experiments with plantation cultivation

While research on the plant continues, Franco-Malagasy entrepreneur Olivier Ramaherison is testing cultivation on land inherited from his father. In terraces cut into the Mandraka forest, 60 kilometres east of the capital, grow between 500 and 1,000 vines — the result of thousands of trials. There are no support trees here: the plants, laden with fruit a few weeks before ripeness, grow close to the ground. 'The idea was to find a solution that makes harvesting easier,' said Ramaherison, head of the company Essentialys, which produces aromatic plants, essential oils, coffee and pepper. By chance, his team discovered that cuttings from the horizontal branches of the vine no longer tend to climb upward. 'If we manage, as on Piper nigrum plantations in Vietnam or Brazil, to produce hundreds of tonnes of wild pepper, it will become a real economic boost for the country,' he added.