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Agarwood

Thailand based company to help bolster agarwood quality

A Cambodian Agarwood company is teaming up with a Thailand investment partner to spend USD 100 million improving the quality of Cambodia’s agarwood trees, according to a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies yesterday. Thoub Chankrassna Khmer Co (TCK), which owns agarwood plantations and an incense factory in Preah Sihanouk province, has partnered with Thai-based First Capital Group (FCG) in the hopes of improving the growth, processing and manufacturing of Cambodia’s 1 million agarwood trees. Agarwood, a fragrant wood harvested for its aromatic, religious and medical applications, is a non timber forest product that can fetch prices upwards of [...]

How Does CITES Regulate the Agarwood Trade

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Widespread information nowadays about the endangered status of many prominent species, such as the tiger and elephants, might make the need for such a convention seem obvious. But at the time when the ideas for CITES were first formed, in the 1960s, international discussion of the regulation of wildlife trade for conservation purposes was something relatively new. With hindsight, the need [...]

Why Should You Invest In Agarwood Forestry

Forestry and Timber Investing - The very concept seems either dull or extremely alien. After all, its’ much more satisfying to follow the rest of the herd and chase the latest hot social networking stock such as Facebook or Linkedin. However any investors – especially those looking for true diversification and stable returns – are making a real oversight by ignoring the value timber and forestry investments could bring to their overall portfolio. One question that is always worth considering when looking at investments is where are large institutional investors putting their money? This is not to say that big investors [...]

Saving Agarwood from Extinction

There are many names for the resinous, fragrant heartwood produced primarily by trees in the genus Aquilaria. The commoner names include agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood, gaharu or oudh, and it is also mentioned in the Old Testament as ‘aloe’ or ‘ahaloth’. This valuable and highly fragrant wood has been used in many ways for over two thousand years, especially as incense in Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic traditional ceremonies, and as a significant component of traditional Ayurvedic, Tibetan and Far Eastern medicine and Middle Eastern perfumes. The genus Aquilaria of the Thymelaeaceae (Daphne family) consists of generally fast-growing trees found in lowland tropical [...]

Agarwood Trees Gave Hong Kong its Name

YEUNG SIU YU points to where a large, agarwood old tree has been hacked with a blade. Villagers have erected a metal fence around the trunk to prevent further attacks, but they fear there will be more: low-hanging limbs are still exposed. “The thieves will come back for this piece,” says Mr Yeung, pointing to the stump of a agarwood branch just above his head. Mr Yeung forsook city life to keep bees on the carefree (and car-free) island of Lamma, a couple of miles from the main island of Hong Kong where the territory’s government and financial centre lie. Lamma’s [...]

Very Rare Agarwood Species is Making a Comeback

A critically endangered species of agarwood, which has been elusive for more than 100 years, has resurfaced. The Aquilaria rostrata was first discovered in 1911 and was thought to be native only to Wray’s Camp in Taman Negara, Pahang. Since then, nobody had spotted the elusive agarwood species. However, two Forestry Department rangers found what they suspected to be the elusive species in April last year in Besut, Terengganu, some 100km away from where it was first discovered. Their suspicion was soon confirmed by a research team in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) led by associate professor Dr Rozi Mohamed. “At first, [...]

The Secret Agarwood Treasure of Vietnam

Plantations International is investigating a rumor has been spread out that two men in Bo Trach district in Quang Binh province accidentally found an Agarwood treasure in the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park. However, Professor Phan Truong Thi, Head of the Gemstone and Jewelries Institute, has denied the possibility of the existence of an Agarwood treasure in nature. Therefore, he keeps doubts about the value of the Agarwood treasure and the sums of money the two men and others got from selling Agarwood they dug. Also according to Thi, Agarwood grows in the wild like many other flora species. [...]