Zanzibar State Trading Corporation: Building a Global Brand for Clove and Essential Oils

Since colonial era, Zanzibar economy depended much on cloves production as the main source of its export trade. It used to contribute up to 90% of Zanzibar export earnings. The industry was established through large plantations attended largely by slave labor, but these have been progressively fragmented into smaller holdings. The first clove seedlings were planted in Zanzibar around 1812. This was before the arrival of Oman Sultan Seyyid Said in Zanzibar in 1828. In the early 1940s, cloves had already spread to Pemba Island where the major expansion of cloves occurred after the hurricane of 1872, which destroyed nearly all the clove trees in Unguja Island. In general, Zanzibar production contributed about 75% of the world clove supply and Pemba Island alone generating about 80% of Zanzibar clove harvest. After the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar (RGoZ) nationalized all land and singled out all plantations, and reallocated plots to the African peasants (smallholder farmers in Zanzibar). After 1964 Zanzibar revolution, the government nationalized trade and government parastatal were afterward entrusted to manage trade activities. This case examines how the monopoly of cloves marketing and exports to the world market assigned  to the Zanzibar State Trading Corporation (ZSTC) has performed over the years.