# Where do cloves come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/cloves/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/cloves.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Cloves come mainly from Indonesia, which produced 147,953 tonnes in 2024, 74% of the world's 198,941 tonnes (FAOSTAT). Madagascar (13%), Tanzania (4.3%) and Comoros (3.9%) follow; the top five together supply 98%. The biggest exporter of cloves (HS 090711) is Indonesia (46% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). The clove tree came from a handful of small islands in eastern Indonesia and was carried out of them by smugglers to the Indian Ocean, and Indonesia still grows most of the world's crop mainly in order to smoke it.

*Dried flower buds of a tropical tree, most of the crop going into Indonesian kretek cigarettes rather than food.* Also called: clove, clove buds, syzygium aromaticum.

## Where do cloves come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2024 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | 147,953 | 74% |
| 2 | Madagascar | 25,114 | 13% |
| 3 | Tanzania | 8,575 | 4.3% |
| 4 | Comoros | 7,767 | 3.9% |
| 5 | Sri Lanka | 5,813 | 2.9% |
| 6 | Kenya | 2,136 | 1.1% |
| 7 | China | 1,337 | 0.7% |
| 8 | Malaysia | 226 | 0.1% |
| 9 | Grenada | 19 | <0.1% |
| | Rest of world | 0 | <0.1% |
| | World | 198,941 | 100% |

Source: FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024.

In 2024 Indonesia produced 147,953 tonnes, 74% of the world's 198,941 tonnes (FAOSTAT). Madagascar followed with 13%, then Tanzania (4.3%), Comoros (3.9%) and Sri Lanka (2.9%). The top five account for 98%, 9 countries reported output and <0.1% came from outside the top ten. World production changed +20% over the ten years to 2024 and +8% on the previous year.

One fact governs this market: most Indonesian cloves are never eaten. They are chopped and blended with tobacco into kretek cigarettes, which dominate Indonesian cigarette sales. The largest producer is therefore also a large buyer, and Indonesia took 8.8% of world clove imports in 2024 (CEPII BACI).

The rest of the crop grows on islands and coasts around the Indian Ocean. Madagascar's clove belt runs down the east coast around Fenerive Est and Analanjirofo, Tanzania's is on Zanzibar and Pemba, and the Comoros and Sri Lanka add smaller quantities. Trees are long-lived, and the same groves have supplied the food trade for generations.


## Who exports and imports cloves?

### Exporters of cloves (whole fruit, cloves and stems), neither crushed nor ground (HS 090710), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | $303 million | 46% |
| 2 | Madagascar | $223.1 million | 34% |
| 3 | Tanzania | $32.8 million | 5% |
| 4 | Comoros | $21.1 million | 3.2% |
| 5 | Singapore | $16.3 million | 2.5% |
| 6 | Sri Lanka | $11.3 million | 1.7% |
| 7 | India | $10 million | 1.5% |
| 8 | Netherlands | $4.3 million | 0.7% |
| 9 | Germany | $4.1 million | 0.6% |
| 10 | United Arab Emirates | $3.4 million | 0.5% |
| 11 | Brazil | $3 million | 0.5% |
| 12 | France | $2.4 million | 0.4% |
| 13 | China | $2.1 million | 0.3% |
| 14 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $2.1 million | 0.3% |
| 15 | Spain | $1.7 million | 0.3% |

### Importers of cloves (whole fruit, cloves and stems), neither crushed nor ground (HS 090710), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | $216 million | 33% |
| 2 | Indonesia | $57.5 million | 8.8% |
| 3 | United Arab Emirates | $50.3 million | 7.7% |
| 4 | China | $35.3 million | 5.4% |
| 5 | Saudi Arabia | $30.6 million | 4.7% |
| 6 | Singapore | $28 million | 4.3% |
| 7 | United States | $23.5 million | 3.6% |
| 8 | Bangladesh | $17 million | 2.6% |
| 9 | Vietnam | $13 million | 2% |
| 10 | Peru | $12.1 million | 1.9% |
| 11 | Pakistan | $11.6 million | 1.8% |
| 12 | Mexico | $10.1 million | 1.5% |
| 13 | Netherlands | $7.9 million | 1.2% |
| 14 | Germany | $7 million | 1.1% |
| 15 | Egypt | $6.7 million | 1% |

### Exporters of cloves, crushed or ground (HS 090720), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | $5.8 million | 23% |
| 2 | Madagascar | $2.5 million | 9.6% |
| 3 | Vietnam | $2.3 million | 9.1% |
| 4 | India | $2.2 million | 8.7% |
| 5 | Netherlands | $1.9 million | 7.5% |
| 6 | Spain | $1.9 million | 7.3% |
| 7 | Sri Lanka | $1.8 million | 7.2% |
| 8 | Germany | $1.6 million | 6.1% |
| 9 | United States | $708,840 | 2.8% |
| 10 | Canada | $597,078 | 2.3% |
| 11 | France | $541,523 | 2.1% |
| 12 | Comoros | $523,530 | 2% |
| 13 | Timor-Leste | $359,518 | 1.4% |
| 14 | Tanzania | $337,479 | 1.3% |
| 15 | Austria | $273,547 | 1.1% |

### Importers of cloves, crushed or ground (HS 090720), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | $6.9 million | 27% |
| 2 | United Kingdom | $1.4 million | 5.4% |
| 3 | Canada | $1.3 million | 5.2% |
| 4 | South Africa | $1.3 million | 5% |
| 5 | Netherlands | $1.1 million | 4.3% |
| 6 | Germany | $1 million | 4% |
| 7 | France | $990,507 | 3.9% |
| 8 | Sweden | $889,716 | 3.5% |
| 9 | Egypt | $839,023 | 3.3% |
| 10 | Poland | $721,263 | 2.8% |
| 11 | Australia | $599,270 | 2.3% |
| 12 | Nigeria | $592,368 | 2.3% |
| 13 | China | $504,938 | 2% |
| 14 | Belgium | $480,570 | 1.9% |
| 15 | Saudi Arabia | $480,555 | 1.9% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Indonesia was the largest exporter of cloves (HS 090711) in 2024 with 46% of world export value, ahead of Madagascar (34%), on world trade of $654.5 million (CEPII BACI). India was the largest importer with 33%.

Cloves move whole, not ground. Under the separate heading for crushed or ground cloves, HS 090720, world trade was only $25.6 million in 2024, led by Indonesia with 23% and bought mostly by United States at 27%. Grinding happens close to the customer because ground cloves lose their oil.

India is the largest importer for food and traditional preparations, and Gulf states buy heavily for spice blends. Singapore appears among exporters as a re-export hub rather than a producer, which is a reminder that clove statistics include material that passes through rather than grows.


## What do cloves cost?

### How they are priced

There is no futures market for cloves and no free public benchmark price, so this site quotes none. Cloves are sold by origin and grade in negotiated lots: buyers specify hand-picked or ungraded, the proportion of stems, headless buds and mother-of-clove, plus moisture and volatile oil content. Zanzibar's crop is bought from farmers by a state marketing corporation at an announced price; Madagascan and Indonesian cloves are sold by exporters against private quotations.

The unusual feature is that the largest buyer and the largest grower are the same country. Indonesia's domestic clove price is set by what the cigarette industry will pay, and when the Indonesian crop falls short, its import buying pulls Madagascan and Comorian cloves away from the food trade and lifts prices everywhere else.


## What moves the price of cloves?

### Kretek demand and tobacco taxation

Indonesian excise increases, health regulation and shifts in cigarette consumption change clove offtake more than any culinary factor. Because the cigarette industry is a small number of large buyers with storage, its purchasing decisions move the market well before the effect reaches food buyers abroad.

### Biennial bearing

Clove trees crop heavily one year and lightly the next, and whole islands tend to swing together because the trees are of similar age and share a climate. Supply therefore oscillates on a roughly two-year rhythm regardless of planted area or price.

### Cyclones in Madagascar

The east-coast clove belt lies in the southwest Indian Ocean cyclone track. Mature trees are broken or defoliated rather than merely stripped, and because a clove tree takes years to bear and decades to reach full yield, storm losses reduce output long after the season they occur in.

### Indonesian import demand

When Indonesia's own crop is short, its buyers compete for Madagascan, Comorian and Tanzanian cloves that would otherwise go to the food trade. That switch is the single clearest transmission channel from the cigarette industry to the price a European spice grinder pays.

### Tree age and replanting

Cloves bear several years after planting and reach full yield much later, so groves decline slowly as they age and replanting responds slowly to price. Aging plantations in Zanzibar and parts of Madagascar have shrunk output gradually rather than in the sudden way a weather shock does.

## How are cloves produced?

Syzygium aromaticum is an evergreen tree, and the clove of commerce is its unopened flower bud. Buds are picked when they swell and turn from green to pink but before the flower opens, because an opened bud loses most of its value. Trees begin bearing several years after planting and yield for decades.

Harvest is by hand from ladders or by climbing, cluster by cluster over several passes as the buds reach the right stage. Pickers strip the buds from the stems, and the stems are dried and sold separately as a cheaper product with its own oil market.

Drying is the whole of the processing. Buds are spread on mats in the sun for several days until they turn dark brown and rattle, losing most of their weight. They are then cleaned and graded on stem content, headless buds, mother-of-clove, moisture and oil. Buds, stems and leaves can all be distilled for eugenol-rich clove oil.


## What are cloves used for?

In Indonesia the dominant use is kretek manufacture. In the food trade, cloves flavor spice blends, curries, pickles, baked goods, mulled drinks and cured meats across South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean, usually whole or coarsely ground and in small quantities.

Clove oil, distilled from buds, stems and leaves, is the industrial product. Its main constituent, eugenol, is used in dentistry, in fragrance, as a flavor and as a feedstock for synthetic vanillin. Stems and leaves that never enter the spice trade are distilled for lower-grade oil, and spent distillation material is burned as fuel.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

The farm end is smallholder throughout. Village collectors buy dried buds and pass them to exporters, and in Zanzibar the crop moves through a state marketing corporation rather than open trade. Indonesian cloves largely bypass the export chain and go straight into the cigarette manufacturers' buying networks.

Logistics are simple. Dried cloves are stable, need no cold chain and travel in ordinary containers out of Toamasina, Zanzibar, Moroni and Indonesian ports, which is why re-export hubs appear in the trade statistics and why the market has no perishability problem to solve.

The real chokepoints are structural. Demand is concentrated in one industry in one country, supply is concentrated on cyclone-exposed coasts, and the trees are slow. None of those adjusts inside a season.


## Timeline

- 1522: Portuguese forts are built on the clove islands of Maluku. Fortifying the only islands then growing cloves turned a local crop into the object of European competition and set the pattern of monopoly that followed. (https://www.aramcoworld.com/articles/2021/spice-migrations-cloves)
- 1600s: The Dutch East India Company destroys clove trees outside its control. A policy of extirpation confined cloves to islands the company held, keeping supply short and prices high for more than a century. (https://www.aramcoworld.com/articles/2021/spice-migrations-cloves)
- 1770: Clove seedlings are smuggled out to Mauritius. Breaking the monopoly let cloves spread to Réunion, the Seychelles and Madagascar, creating the Indian Ocean supply base that still serves the food trade. (https://www.aramcoworld.com/articles/2021/spice-migrations-cloves)
- 1812: Cloves reach Zanzibar and plantations expand. Sultanate policy required clove planting alongside coconut, and Zanzibar and Pemba became the dominant producers for the rest of the nineteenth century. (https://www.aramcoworld.com/articles/2021/spice-migrations-cloves)
- 1990-12: Indonesia grants a clove marketing board a trading monopoly. A single board was given sole rights over clove trading and imports, forcing growers to sell low and cigarette makers to buy high. (https://www.fao.org/4/y4632e/y4632e0l.htm)
- 1998: The clove monopoly is dismantled under Indonesia's IMF program. Removing the board's marketing and import monopoly returned clove buying to the cigarette manufacturers and reopened Indonesia to imported cloves. (https://www.fao.org/4/y4632e/y4632e0l.htm)
- 2012-04: WTO Appellate Body rules against the US ban on clove cigarettes. The ban on flavored cigarettes that spared menthol was found to discriminate against Indonesian kreteks, the clearest sign of how far clove demand is a tobacco question. (https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds406_e.htm)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most cloves

Indonesia produced 147,953 tonnes in 2024, 74% of the world's 198,941 tonnes (FAOSTAT). Madagascar was second with 13% and Tanzania third with 4.3%. Production is concentrated on islands around the Indian Ocean and in eastern Indonesia, where the tree originated, and most of the Indonesian crop goes into cigarettes rather than food.

### what are cloves used for

Most of the world crop goes into kretek cigarettes in Indonesia, where cloves are chopped and blended with tobacco. The rest flavors spice blends, curries, pickles, baked goods, mulled drinks and cured meats, and clove oil is distilled for eugenol used in dentistry, fragrance and synthetic vanillin.

### why does indonesia import cloves when it is the largest producer

Because its cigarette industry consumes more than the domestic crop supplies in many years, and clove trees crop heavily one year and lightly the next. Indonesia took 8.8% of world clove imports in 2024 (CEPII BACI). That buying pulls cloves from Madagascar, the Comoros and Tanzania away from the food trade and lifts prices for everyone else.

### what are kretek cigarettes

Indonesian cigarettes made from tobacco blended with chopped clove buds, often with clove oil and other spices. They dominate Indonesian cigarette sales, which is why clove demand tracks tobacco taxation and smoking regulation far more closely than it tracks food demand anywhere in the world.

### how are cloves harvested and dried

Buds are picked by hand before the flower opens, when they swell and turn pink, in several passes over the tree. Pickers strip buds from the stems, then spread the buds on mats to sun-dry for several days until they turn dark brown and rattle, losing most of their weight.

### how are clove prices set

By negotiation on origin and grade, with no futures contract and no free public benchmark. Buyers specify stem content, headless buds, moisture and volatile oil. Zanzibar's crop is bought by a state marketing corporation at an announced price, while Madagascan and Indonesian cloves sell against private quotations.

## Sources

- FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024. License: CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use). https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where do cloves come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/cloves/.