Pemba

Pemba, the smaller and more northerly island of the Zanzibar archipelago, is the archipelago’s dominant clove-growing area. Sourcing describes the greatest concentration of clove trees in Zanzibar as being on Pemba — cited at roughly 3.5 million trees — attributed to soil and rainfall conditions more favorable to cloves than Unguja’s. Estimates of Pemba’s specific share of total Zanzibar clove output vary by source (roughly 70% and roughly 90% both appear in the literature), so a precise single number cannot be confidently cited, though multiple sources agree Pemba supplies the clear majority. As on Unguja, all legal clove sales run through ZSTC. Clove growing on Pemba dates to the 1830s Omani plantation era; a persistent informal cross-border trade to Kenya, offering higher prices than ZSTC, has been documented as undercutting the formal channel.