Tropical
Hardwood Species Selection
We are planting
and growing more than 50
species of precious tropical hardwood trees,
carefully chosen by our foresters for their beautiful hardwoods, excellent growth
potential, and high value, both on the local and international markets.
Costa
Rica has an active hardwood export market as well as a strong local market which
produces attractive hand-crafted furniture, cabinetry, and specialty items made from these
beautiful tropical hardwoods.
We chose those species of trees
which produce beautiful tropical hardwoods that are so valuable that even small pieces of
the wood can have value. The advantage of planting these high-value species is that the
financial return can be much greater and can begin much earlier because smaller trees can
be harvested. We don't have to wait until the trees are large enough to yield plank-sized
lumber to begin to harvest. Also, when we do harvest larger trees, even the branch-wood
can be valuable.
The best known of the species we
are planting is teak, one of the most highly
prized woods in the world and often the standard to which other fine woods are compared.
Teak was brought to Costa Rica in the 1940's, and flourishes in the area of Costa Rica
where our tree farms are located.
Teak, like other fine tropical
hardwoods, is in great demand, and at continually increasing prices. A single teak log,
for example, can now bring as much as $20,000. According to data published by the United
Nations, the price of teak on the international export/import market has risen nearly 10%
per year, compounded, for the last twenty years (see the chart below). In the last
two years of our study, the price of teak rose at an annual rate of more than 23% per
year.
The likely increase in the price of the
wood, coupled with the growth in volume of the trees, combine to produce an attractive
potential return. Go to Projections for an illustration of
the projected harvest schedule and yields from planting teak in our plantations.
The other tropical hardwood
species our foresters have selected for planting in our plantations are such rare and
highly prized tropical hardwoods as bocote,
Brazilian cherry, cocobolo, goncalo alves, idigbo, ipe or lapacho, madero negro, mahogany, nargusta, peroba rosa, primavera or white mahogany, purpleheart, roble, Santa Maria, trebol, and wild tambran. Several of our species are
already on endangered lists, and some are nearing extinction.
It is difficult to imagine what
the price of these beautiful tropical hardwoods will be as the world's rainforests are
destroyed or placed off-limits to loggers.
Although fewer statistics are
published on some of our selected species because they are so scarce, their hardwoods are
exquisitely beautiful and in great demand. Today's prices of all of our selected hardwoods
are high, some even higher than teak. We expect the prices of all of our tropical
hardwoods to go ever higher as their only present source of supply, the natural
rainforest, is either destroyed or protected.
Go to Tropical Hardwoods for more information on all of our
selected tropical hardwood species and the tropical hardwoods they produce.
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