OVER the past two weeks, Muhammad Ikhsan, a small clove-flavored cigarette businessman in Malang, East Java, has been restless. The price of clove, one of the main ingredients of his business, is creeping upward.

At the beginning of the year, the price per kilogram of clove at the trade level was still Rp30,000 to Rp40,000. Last week, it had climbed to Rp56,000. The price is continuing to edge up, Ikhsan said to Tempo, Thursday last week. Im so c