The Zanzibar clove industry

For about 150 years cloves have been a major export crop of Zanzibar. The industry was established through large plantations run with slave labor but these have been progressively fragmented into smaller holdings. Throughout this century the industry at home has faced several recurring problems, the worst of which are tree diseases, ageing tree populations and occasional neglect of trees. As a result, replanting has been crucial to the maintenance of the industry which has also been strengthened by government assistance. Overseas, Zanzibar faced little competition in the world clove market until recently and this is now being aggravated by increasing self-sufficiency in Indonesia. The future of the Zanzibar industry will depend on its ability to cope with the problems of the industry at home and on its success at selling cloves in an increasingly competitive world market.