Taste and use

That's what makes these cloves from Kerala so special:

• Taste: These cloves have an intense aroma and taste spicy-sweet with a slightly burning to pungent note.
• Quality features: Careful processing is required to obtain such aromatic cloves: it is important to cut the flower buds carefully from the trees at the right moment. They are then left to dry in the sun.
• Use: Cloves are an integral part of (North) Indian cuisine and are used in the garam masala spice mix, biryani and masala chai, for example. Due to its antibacterial properties, it is also used as an Ayurvedic remedy.
  In our kitchens, the Nägeli is used in larded onions in casseroles, in sweet pastries or in hot winter punch.

Cultivation and ecology

This is how cloves are grown:

• Cultivation method: Cultivation in multi-stage agroforestry systems, without the use of pesticides. Originally from the South Seas, clove trees are grown in Kerala in mixed agroforestry cultures.
• Producers: The small farms of the members of the "Fair Trade Alliance Kerala" are on average just one hectare in size. The farmers grow a wide variety of products for export, for the local village markets, but also for themselves. Many have an additional income because family members work in the city or even abroad and support the farming families.

This is how the price is made up

The producers receive USD 14.30 per kilogram of cloves. We pay USD 60 per kilogram of cloves.

Cultivation & processing CHF 1.40

• Cultivation and harvesting: Fair Trade Alliance Kerala
• Processing and export: FTAK, Elements Homestead Products

Transport & logistics CHF 1.72

• Export and logistics: Unilogistics
• Fees: Customs
• Quality assurance: SQTS laboratory
• Packaging: Zurich plant
• Shipping: Post

Procurement & distribution CHF 1.15

• Coordination, communication, online market: Crowd Container