A TOTAL of 2000 tonnes of cloves worth 36bn/- were produced last year in Morogoro Region, a senior official has disclosed.

Regional Administrative Secretary, Musa Ally Musa disclosed this when speaking at the spice industry stakeholders’ meeting that ended here yesterday.

Musa said that half of the total tonnes of cloves produced in Zanzibar were produced in   Morogoro District Council alone.

“This is evident small holder farmers are anxious to grow the crop in Morogoro Rural, Kilombero and Mvomero districts and in Mlimba District Council,” he said.

“Our region is gifted with climatic conditions and fertile soil that are ideal for production of spices. The prerequisites are presenting a good opportunity for producing efficiently different spices while observing world-class standards,” he told a meeting of stakeholders in the spice industry that ended here yesterday.

Tanzania is pushing hard to become one of the world big producers of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon grass and pepper.

Late last year, Tanga Region was put on the list of prospective clove producers on Mainland because the coastal region has the same climatic conditions like Zanzibar.

Cloves thrive well in hilly places.  Tanga Region has hilly places and in Zanzibar cloves are predominantly grown in hilly places of Pemba Islands and some parts of Tumbatu Island.

Clove growing on Mainland Tanzania is being promoted by the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzanian (Sagcot) by coordinating and mobilizing agri-finance of its partners in the private sector who have interest in the spice industry and horticultural crops.