Indonesia plans to cut down clove trees and convert the area to other crops in a move to curb over-production of cloves

The nationwide campaign to convert 212500 ha to other crops was officially launched by Home minister, Mr Yogie Memed, in West Java. Cloves will be replaced by, amongst others, coffee and vanilla.
Mr Memed commented that clove production currently stood at 110000 tonnes a year, 30000 tonnes more than demand. Indonesia has a current area under cloves of 512 500 ha. The surplus causes high storage costs for the Clove Support and Marketing Board (BPPC), which holds a virtual monopoly on clove trading. Currently, stocks are reported to stand at 270000 tonnes, sufficient for three years.