More notes on Agarwood

Looking forward to the future of business

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.