Why Is Stevia So Expensive?

Cultivation Costs

• One of the main reasons that stevia is so expensive is that it costs money to cultivate the Stevia Rebaudiana plant. Cultivation costs include investing in farms, in the plants themselves and in the equipment needed to plant, water and harvest the plants. In addition, converting the plants into pure stevioside requires additional expensive equipment. When the consumer pays for stevia, he is essentially paying for all of these costs of cultivating the plant and converting it into a usable substance.

Supply and Demand

• At the same time, the cultivation costs would seem to apply equally to sugar plants. Unlike sugar, however, stevia is not cultivated all over the world nor is it currently cultivated in many countries. Because of this, the supply of stevia is much lower than the supply of sugar, even in terms of its ratio to demand. Therefore, due to the economic law of supply and demand, the relatively low supply drives up the cost of the sweetener.

Stevia vs. Chemical Sweeteners

• Chemical sweeteners have an even more basic reason for being cheaper than stevia. Sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucralose, are essentially just chemicals combined in a lab, even if some of them may be derived from sugar or other natural ingredients. In addition, many sweeteners are made by one major company; NutraSweet, for example, has a patent on aspartame. This patent guarantees bigger profits for the company than for a plant like stevia, which can be grown by anyone.

The Effects of Stevia's Price

• Stevia's high price may negatively affect its ability to stay on the market. Bassam Farees, the director of sales at the sucralose distributor ISI, stated that although stevia is a "challenge" to the market, ISI is not overly worried because of the price difference. However, stevia's manufacturers hope that once sales really take off, more manufacturers will buy in larger bulk, which will drive down the price.