Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
from Australia and the United States. Having gained substantial experience in the
production of sandalwood in Western Australia, some companies are now ready to
turn their efforts to Aquilaria plantations which potentially could yield even higher
prices per production or investment unit (Coakley 2007). These companies also
have the possibility to plan for a more distant future than many small holder tree
growers who, because of a shortage of resources to invest, require quicker returns
for their investments. Harvesting at an earlier stage and thereby of lower quality
will therefore be the result (see Fig. 12.1).
In the meantime, and as is the case with many other expensive products, there is
an influx of fake agarwood products into the market. Some of these products go by
the name of Black Magic Wood (BMW), and in fact are made from Aquilaria wood
which has been impregnated with cheap artificial oil. It requires a trained eye and
nose to differentiate real agarwood from these fake products however there is a
ready market for this product, which however is often sold as genuine agarwood (in
Malaysia, Thailand and middle eastern countries).
There are of course a number of questions to be asked in relation to the large scale
domesticated production of agarwood: Can the high prices currently paid for agar-
wood be sustained if production is substantially increased? What will the quality of
the cultivated product be? There are also concerns about the consequences of large-
scale cultivation for the traditional producers of agarwood, the collectors inside the
forested areas. It is generally assumed that the natural top quality agarwood will
become rare but remain in demand, particularly in Japan. This 'top end' of the mar-
ket cannot easily be replaced by cultivated agarwood. At the mid and lower level of
the agarwood supply, it is predicted that there will be an increase in supply from the
new areas. In the foreseeable future prices will remain high. However, a slow and
gradual reduction in price is expected when large supplies enter the market in about
10 years as a result of this increased cultivation. Finally it is assumed that the pro-
duction, and therefore the value, will gradually move from the original rainforest
areas to plantations located in other areas. There are also other cases of non-timber
forest products in the tropics of which the centres of production have been trans-
ferred to other areas. Rattan, orchids and various types of bush meat or animal skins
Type of activity
Producers
Harvesting from wild Aquilaria stands
Traditional forest dwellers
Harvesting from wild stands and deliberate
Forest dwellers and commercial
wounding of trees
collectors
Cultivating of wild trees and deliberate wounding
Forest dwellers and commercial
collectors
Production of domestication trees, small plantations and
Forest-based farmers, and neigh
new wounding techniques
bouring communities
Larger plantations and research based wounding and
Local and national forest-based
inoculation techniques
industries
Large industrial plantations at new (and distant) locations
Foreign forest-based enterprises
Fig 12.1 Stages in agarwood production
 
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