Heilala Vanilla Syrup scooped up the first prize for the Best Confectionary prize during the 8th annual Food Magazine Award 2012 ceremony held in Australia.

According to the Heilala Vanilla they had scooped up several awards in New Zealand and they are excited with this award as this is their first Australian award. 

Heilala Vanilla will also be exhibiting at Fine Food Melbourne along with a group of food producers from the South Pacific from the 10 – 13 September 2012.

Fine Food Melbourne is the largest gathering of international food, drink and equipment for the retail, foodservice and hospitality industries.

About Heilala Vanilla

Heilala Vanilla began as an aid project over 8 years ago, when a Vanilla plantation was established by a NZ family, in partnership with a local family from the village of Utungake in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga. In 2005 the first crop was harvested and brought back to New Zealand, and was snapped up by local chefs.

Since these small beginnings of the first harvest of 40kg of dried Vanilla pods, Heilala Vanilla in 2011 completed a harvest of 3.5 tonne. This has had a significant impact on the local community providing employment and infrastructure.

Products are sold into specialty food retail, fine dining establishments and gourmet food manufacturers. Markets have been established in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore and in the United States.

As a retired NZ dairy farmer, John Ross, together with his son in law Garth Boggiss who has a horticultural background, have built up a vast knowledge of growing this very specialised crop rich in history through meeting and visiting Vanilla growers in many parts of the world (including Tahiti, Reunion Is and Costa Rica) . A plantation in both Tonga and in Tauranga as enabled a complete focus on the intricacies of growing Vanilla.

Heilala Vanilla has a range of award winning 100% Pure Vanilla products, including Vanilla Beans, Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Paste and Vanilla Sugar and Vanilla syrup.