Introduction
In Madagascar, there are 2 major clove growing regions, North and South. The season for Cloves starts here from August for the South side crop. The difference between south and north is that the size of cloves from South is normally smaller than that from North. Also the crop from South is less than from North, in percentage, south crop constitute approximately 20-30% of total cloves from Madagascar, the rest is from North.
The North crop normally starts from October onwards, and formal Cloves Export starts from November when licences are issued, but lately we have seen delays in awarding of licences and since 2 years we have seen the formal season starting from December.
Operations at the farm level.
Cloves are grown on the trees and when the harvesting starts, the farmers pluck the ripe clove buds from the trees.
These plantations may be owned by different farmers and they would have demarcation to segregate the trees. These individual farmer groups then pluck and collect the clove buds from the trees, check the video to see how they do it.
These plantations may be owned by different farmers and they would have demarcation to segregate the trees. These individual farmer groups then pluck and collect the clove buds from the trees, check the video to see how they do it.
After plucking, they are then taken to their homes or respective workplaces where these buds are segregated from Buds to Stems. Check the video to have better understanding.
Once they are segregated, they are then kept under the sun for drying. Typically they have to be dried for 3-5 days depending on the weather, until their colour becomes brown / reddish. The moisture content at this stage is normally 30-35%.
After plucking, they are then taken to their homes or respective workplaces where these buds are segregated from Buds to Stems. Check the video to have better understanding.
Once they are segregated, they are then kept under the sun for drying. Typically they have to be dried for 3-5 days depending on the weather, until their colour becomes brown / reddish. The moisture content at this stage is normally 30-35%.
The first commercial link in the process – Level 1
The system differs from North to South. In the North, the farmers go and sell these cloves to the local shop, who acts as a local collector. These collectors are not exclusive to Cloves, and they buy & sell all kinds of farm or non farm products in that village.
In case of cloves, they will do collections like this for a week and may end up accumulating anywhere between few hundred kilos to few tons and then they will go to sell these to big regional collectors who are more exclusive to agro products or may be only cloves.
In the south, they follow different systems. The villages set-up markets on designated days of the week, and the collectors can go there and buy directly from the farmers. There are a lot of walk-ins also where farmers or small collectors come directly to the warehouse and sell small to big quantities.
Second link in the process – Level 2
These regional collectors are normally located in smaller towns like Fenoariva, Mananara, Maroantsetra etc. These are people with money and they have capacity to hold stocks and sell them as per market dynamics. In many cases these collectors are pre-financed by exporters to work and collect on their behalf.
These collectors may have direct links with the exporters, but they also have a network of agents who roam around the city of Toamasina (Tamatave) visiting various exporters and offering the stocks. The stocks offered can range anywhere between few tons to 100s of tons. They have their own trucks / boats to move the cargo from their place to the Cloves exporter depot in Tamatave.
Many collectors at this level do extra drying at their end to sell the material at premium.
How do we operate?
Our processing and packaging unit is in Tamatave, but we have 2 collection centres, Mananara in the North and Vangaindrano in the South. Both these centres are well equipped to check the quality including the moisture so that the right material is bought at the right price.
With our presence in the north and south, we are able to buy directly from the farmers, participate in the village markets as well as Level 1 and Level 2 collectors. We also dry the cargo before transporting it to our factory in Tamatave.
Let’s look at the process at the exporters factory.
Drying:
Cloves in Madagascar are ideally sun dried. Tamatave is a coastal city and it witnesses minor to major cyclones every year during the month of January – February. So at times drying takes more time than planned. If the material is high in moisture, like 30% plus, then we may require 3-5 hours of drying depending on how consistently we are getting the sun.
Cleaning
Once the cargo is well dried, we put them through the cleaning process which will include removal of dust and foreign matter. Removal of baby cloves, stems, fermented buds and also sorting of headless to ensure that the final product matches the specification parameters. The quality team draws 100 gram random samples regularly and separates headless, baby clove and steams to check their percentage. The feedback of these results are shared with their supervisor so that they can take corrective action if required.
Packing
Final packing is done at the conclusion of the cleaning process. The electric weighing scale is placed at the end of the process line, where final packing is done in Jute Bag / PP Bag or Cartons depending on what the customer has requested for. The labels are stitched on the mouth of the bags while closing the bags.
Container stuffing.
Container stuffing takes place inside the factory only. After the stuffing is complete, the container is locked and keys kept with the factory. The container is sent to the port with the our team.
At the port, the customs do their final inspection of the cargo before putting a custom seal on the container.
