Isles President Ali Mohamed Shein graced the inauguration of the branded spices, noting that Zanzibar cloves remain the world's best, asking the people to maintain the standard.

 

"We took the best decision not to privatise cloves; it would be under threat of collapse with low price. Branding will definitely raise their standard, farmers' income and protect our property," said Dr Shein.

 

The inauguration of the branding exercise was among activities lined-up to mark this year's 53rd anniversary of the Zanzibar Revolution. The event was held at Saateni, which is Zanzibar State Trading Corporation (ZSTC) protected area zone, where black pepper, cinnamon, and chilli are also parked and branded.

 

President Shein said Zanzibar has been facing competition from other clove-producing countries; "and, therefore, we have to work hard to improve quality and production to win the market," Dr Shein reiterated the government's position that it will not privatise the top cash crop, asking respective authorities to curb illegal exports or smuggling of the spice to neighbouring countries as well as educating growers on the branding aspect.

 

Following the recent agreement (MoU) between ZSTC and GANEFRYD Company of Denmark, organic cloves and selected spices will be branded for export to Europe. It is a pilot, three-year project "anticipated to give admirable results".

 

According to the Minister for Trade, Industries, and Marketing, Ms Ambassador Amina Salum Ali, the 'Organic Cloves' project involves the whole process -- from planting, growing, harvesting, drying, storage,

 

sorting and packaging, adding that each step will be carefully supervised and certified before delivery. "I urge farmers and Zanzibaris to support the government's efforts to boost cloves and other spices, by observing growing guidelines, and protection from illegal exports. We are happy with the new market in Europe; Ms Ali said.

 

She encouraged farmers to get into organic farming because it pays. For, example, she noted, farmers fetch 14,000/- per kilo of convectional cloves while earning 17,000/- per kilogramme of organic ones.

Source : allafrica.com