In 1979, vanilla beans were promoted by  the Board of Chatolic Churces in Medan, capital city of North Sumatra, who distributed 100  vanilla cutting to 10 local Pastors in Samosir. First crop fell in 1983,  resulting a small crop and with no buyer then. They thrashed the beans but continued to pollinate the flower the following  year until they had the second crop in 1985, still with nowhere to sell the beans.

Persistent harwork showed result in 1987 as their 700 kg crop were bought out by the first buyer at $4/kg and soon vanilla cultivation became heard all over the island. More growers cultivated vanilla beans and in 1990-1994 they had their best time of vanilla beans cultivation when the vanilla beans price was soaring. Green beans vanilla beans was then priced about $40/kg  and motivated more growers to cut down their coffee plantation and grew vanilla beans instead. During 1997-2001, total crop reached 80 tons per year from this region.  Now,  as the vanilla beans are back to the stable price, it is estimated the crop reaches 50 ton/year from Samosir Island with positive increase in the years to come.