Low results, lower results or low results mixed with good results would be the signals that you might have higher risk to encounter fermentation and moulds in a very near future.
It would be to long to explain the reason of the poor quality of this crop but there is an explanation for it and we would tell it all in details during our meeting in Tokyo.
Also, you might be aware of the lack of vanilla beans in general and particularly for the black/gourmet vanilla type (there are many subjects about it on the internet).
Please note that we still have 2009 crop available for immediate delivery in Japan.