Agarwood: what happens next when your trees are matured?

 

Here are some things you need to ask yourselves and prepare from now. Otherwise, you'll end up like many everywhere; owners of plantations with hundreds or thousands of trees but clueless, totally in the dark as to what to do next....and disillusioned, frustrated and blaming others. There are things that we ARE NOT told beforehand.

Here are a few hints:

The business is about selling agarwood products, not trees because no one will buy your trees no matter how many you have. Why? Because:

1) trees need to be inoculated and there will be costs. No inoculation, no resin. Don't believe in the "no need for inoculum" story. It is a very isolated case. Study the genetics of agarwood, resin induction & formation. You'll be a lot safer.

2) after inoculation, a 1-2 year long wait for resin formation and maturity. Test of patience.

3) upon resin-maturity, manpower and costs are needed to fell the trees.

4) after felling, more costs to move the logs, chop them up, chip them into small pieces, separate the incense chips from the oud oil chips,

5) then there will be more manpower costs for carving & extracting the gaharu and/or crafting and selecting oil chips

6) if you desire to produce oud, there will be drying, grinding, soaking and subsequently, distilling for at least one week per distillation pot. More costs on gas or electricity.

7) the next unavoidable step is marketing your products. Since everyone has planted agarwood, everyone will be in the same predicament as you. No individual will market your wares for you: an organization or a central collection centre.....maybe.

There are no shortcuts in the agarwood industry. We don't grow rich just by planting seedlings (BELIEVE ME). It's DIY all the way from A-Z like any other business.

So, prepare from now. Identify where to send your raw mat for processing when the time comes: who have all the infrastructure if you yourselves don't, what will be the costs for you to bear, how and where to market your agarwood products, by-products and downstream products.

Be sure you see the logistical support available: farmhouses cum workshops, wood-chippers, grinders, distillers etc, not only hear about them. Heed this advice. It is easy to make promises to growers but very difficult to keep or fulfill them.

Anyway, congratulations for coming into this promising, lucrative undertaking. If you plan your work and work your plan.....you'll survive. Again please remember....and don't ever forget; just planting seedlings and/or inoculating your trees will not make your rich or millionaires. What happens after these.....CAN and WILL......believe me. Please mix with the right people.

We reap what we sow.

Lastly, always remember this: big buyers always ask how many kilos of agarwood or how many litres of oud we have, NOT how many trees we grow.

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