Why Agarwood Is So Expensive | So Expensive
Video Statistics and Information
Channel: Business Insider
Views: 5,943,401
Rating: 4.8960371 out of 5
Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, expensive, wood, agarwood, trees, economy, prices, asia, rainforest, market
Id: _1utBGvW5rM
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 6min 28sec (388 seconds)
Published: Sat Aug 22 2020
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Watching this process, it's clear why almost none of the plantation wood I've tried has really smelled like wild aloeswood; and why the Japanese classification system does not consider it to be aloeswood at all.
I don't think all plantation wood is made this way, but I think it's true that almost all plantations use similar infection methods now, since they result in a much quicker turnaround.
Unfortunately the major missing ingredient is, and always will be, time. High quality aloeswood can take 40 or 50 years to develop in the wild. Even if it's 30 years, I find it difficult to believe that anyone is going to make an investment which takes that long to mature. I really believe that once the natural wild agarwood resources are gone, they will probably literally never be replaced.
So I do think plantation wood is the inevitable future, and there are reportedly already large established incense houses finding ways to incorporate it. My hope is that we find some better ways of producing it.
I find this video to be misleading to some extent. Yes, it is true most farms are using chemicals. But there are still many agarwood plantations using traditional infecting methods without using chemicals.
The chemical injection method is mostly used in Thailand and Vietnam, Indonesia, China which is where most of the plantation woods are coming from.