98% of Indonesia's Clove Plantations are Managed by Smallholders

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the area of clove plantations in Indonesia reached 572.4 thousand hectares in 2024.

Approximately 98% of them—specifically 98.61%—are categorized as smallholder plantations.

Smallholder plantations are those managed by the general public, including small businesses and household-scale enterprises.

Furthermore, 1.37% of clove plantations are managed by private estates, and only 0.02% are managed by government estates, with detailed areas as shown in the graph.

Recently, specifically in early August 2025, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) discovered Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination in Indonesian cloves exported to the United States (US).

"The FDA detected the presence of Cs-137 in one sample of cloves from PT Natural Java Spice," the FDA stated in an announcement on its website.

"As such, spice products shipped by the firm PT Natural Java Spice to the U.S. have also been added to the import alert for chemical contamination," they said.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cs-137 is a radioactive element that can pose health risks to humans, such as burns, acute radiation sickness, increased cancer risk, and even death if exposed in large quantities.

"Exposure to such a large amount could come from the mishandling of a strong industrial source of Cs-137, a nuclear detonation or a major nuclear accident. Large amounts of Cs-137 are not found in the environment under normal circumstances," the EPA stated on its website.

This radioactive contamination in cloves has been confirmed by the Indonesian government, through the Task Force for Handling Cs-137 Radionuclide Radiation.

Bara Krishna Hasibuan, Head of Diplomacy and Communication for the Task Force for Handling Cs-137 Radionuclide Radiation, stated that the company mentioned by the FDA is located in Surabaya. However, the contaminated cloves originated from Lampung.

"So, the processing location is indeed in Surabaya, and they purchased it from two sources: one plantation in Pati, Central Java, and another in Lampung," Bara said during a press conference on Monday (October 13, 2025).

"We can confirm that contamination was found in a plantation in Lampung. The contamination was found in limited quantities and has not spread to other areas or commodities," Bara said.

"The team is still tracing the source of the Cs-137 contamination in Lampung. The government is moving quickly to localize this contamination to prevent it from spreading to other areas," he stated.