An entrepreneur, a businessman, who wandered into teaching after finishing his MBA. Now a full time entrepreneur and businessman, discovering what works and what does not work. Surrendering idealism for Pragmatism In entrepreneurship, you do not really know until you find out...
I am a businessman and entrepreneur and an educator on entrepreneurship by accident/or on the side. I am first and foremost a businessman and entrepreneur. I made this blog to gather my thoughts on the subject, make this as a legacy for future entrepreneurs.
It was mentioned that harvessting from the wild especially in the mountains of Samar Leyte in Mindanao are covered. Those in the wild command the best price and quality. The domestic inoculated ones are not that regulated. However the germination planting, harvesting and trading need DENR and CITES approval. This adds another layer of complexity to the growing and marketing of AGAR. You need to inoculate this. However some say that in China, they do not encourage inoculation because the process causes lower quality and hence price.
This post thought there was a law, but only DENR regulations. They say they have to do this because Aquilaria is endangered because of the poaching because of the high value.
The first to be legalized farming is that of IBA Botanicals headed by Ben Mead. They collaborated with Gourmet in Silang and now selling seedlings.
However it does not seem to be endangered. There seems to be millions all ready planted here in the Philippines.
Why do they seem to make it so hard? No wonder many Filipinos are poor. Our regulations keep us from becoming wealthy
It is so expensive with price ranging from P24,000 (on rejects) up to P5,000,000 per kg. This comes from old trees in the wild.
1. Agar and is termed aloes in the Bible was used to annoint Jesus Christ when he was buried by Nicodemus. Jesus Christ was believed to have planted aloes too. Even mentioned as early as 1,700 BC. In Sanskrit, Christian bibles, and Kuran
2. The markets for agar include:
1. Muslims who are enjoined to burn agar daily. There are 220 million Muslims all over the world.
If we estimate them to use 1 kg of agarwood every year, thats 220 million kg demand every year
Current supply is roughly just 2.5% of the estimated total demand. $ value is placed at $64 B
2. The other market are China India, Japan and Korea
3. It is used as a fragrance.
It is only sold as an export to such countries. You need an export license to be able to sell Agarwood
3. Aquilaria is listed as endangered species. That is why is is controlled by CITES and PHL DENR.
Both control the growing and sale of Agarwood. I is said to have been poached extensively by fortune hunters. But a million has seemed to have been grown in the Philippines. So it is no longer
endangered?
4. For Aquilaria to produce Agar, it has to be infected by a specific fungus Phialapora parasitica. Thus it has to be inoculated
Inoculation is a closely guarded secret
5. The best agarwood comes from the Philippines
6. A Thai producer has a video of the various grades/quality of Agarwood and varying smell: from the
cheapest to the most expensive:
1. Various parts of the tree can bear agar: branches and the trunk; those from the trunkk are
more expensive. Smell becomes deeper and exotic as the price and origin goes up. The more
expensive ones are from the older trees.
2. The agarwood has to be carved from the white wood and this takes time. The carver has to be
trained and certified
7. The challenges to agarwood are:
1. It is expensive: the seedlings at P500 each and there is 50% mortality
2 Licensing of the seedling trees
3. Inoculation to get the agar resin
4. Harvesting and carving
5. Marketing
The experts are Dr. Ephraim Cercado from San Jose and Ben Mead from Iba Zembales. Dr Ephraim has established a company that is on a partner plantation drive to provide seedlings technology and do the marketing on a 60:40 basis.
