MADAGASCAR'S new crop cloves prices have opened very high as it becomes increasingly clear that output will be substantially down this year.
Earlier forecasts had ranged from 4,000 tonnes at the lowest end of the scale up to 7,000 tonnes at best. Even the latter figure would be well short of Madagascar's normal crop range of 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes, but now exporters in the country are claiming the crop will be as low as 3,000 tonnes. In particularly good years Madagascar has seen output as high as 15,000 tonnes...READ MORE