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Types of Gaharu Tree

Type of Gaharu based on ranking.

1. AQUILARIA SUBINTEGRA, Found at Thailand
2. AQUILARIA CRASSNA, Found at Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam
3. AQUILARIA MALACCENSIS, Found at Thailand, India, Indonesia
4. AQUILARIA APICULATA, Found at Philippines
5. AQUILARIA BAILLONIL, Found at Thailand, Combodia, Loas, Vietnam
6. AQUILARIA BANEONSIS, Found at Vietnam
7. AQUILARIA BECCARIAN, Found at Indonesia
8. AQUILARIA BRACHYANTHA, Found at Malaysia
9. AQUILARIA CUMINGIANA, Found at Indonesia, Philippines
10.AQUILARIA FILARIA, Found at Nuegini, China
11.AQUILARIA GRANDIFLORA, Found at China
12.AQUILARIA HILATA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
13.AQUILARIA KHASIANA, Found at India
14.AQUILARIA MICROCAPA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
15.AQUILARIA ROSTRATA, Found at Malaysia
16.AQUILARIA SINENSIS, Found at China

Comparison of four types of Gaharu based on agarwood oil yield and prices.
1. SUBINTEGRA, Oil = Good, Price = Good.
2. CRASSNA, Oil = Medium, Price = Medium.
3. MALACCENSIS, Oil = Poor, Price = Poor.
4. BAILLONIL, Oil = Poor, Price = Poor.

Related posts:
* Aquilaria (Agarwood, Karas or Gaharu)

Latar Belakang Pokok Gaharu

Pokok Gaharu atau dikenali dalam Bahasa Ingris sebagai Agarwood adalah pokok dalam family Thymelaeceae. Pokok yang telah matang akan membesar sehingga 40 meter tinggi dan berdiameter 40cm. Pokok gaharu di hutan semulajadi mula mengeluarkan resin gaharu pada usia 20 hingga 45 tahun, bergantung pada ketahanan pokok dan tindakbalas kecederaan pokok.

Pokok gaharu amat diminati kerana dapat menghasilkan aroma yang wangi dan menyenangkan apabila dibakar kayunya. Mengikut data yang dikeluarkan pada Persidangan Gaharu Dunia pertama di Vietnam terdapat 16 spesis dari genus Aquilaria yang mempunyai nilai komersil yang tinggi.

BERIKUT ADALAH JENIS-JENIS AGRAWOOD MENGIKUT RANKING

1. AQUILARIA SUBINTEGRA, Found at Thailand
2. AQUILARIA CRASSNA, Found at Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam
3. AQUILARIA MALACCENSIS, Found at Thailand, India, Indonesia
4. AQUILARIA APICULATA, Found at Philippines
5. AQUILARIA BAILLONIL, Found at Thailand, Combodia, Loas, Vietnam
6. AQUILARIA BANEONSIS, Found at Vietnam
7. AQUILARIA BECCARIAN, Found at Indonesia
8. AQUILARIA BRACHYANTHA, Found at Malaysia
9. AQUILARIA CUMINGIANA, Found at Indonesia, Philippines
10.AQUILARIA FILARIA, Found at Nuegini, China
11.AQUILARIA GRANDIFLORA, Found at China
12.AQUILARIA HILATA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
13.AQUILARIA KHASIANA, Found at India
14.AQUILARIA MICROCAPA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
15.AQUILARIA ROSTRATA, Found at Malaysia
16.AQUILARIA SINENSIS, Found at China

Pokok gaharu hidup di kawasan tanah pamah sehingga ketinggian 750m dari aras laut dan memerlukan taburan hujan dan kelembapan yang tinggi. Gaharu digunakan dalam industri minyak wangi, produk perubatan, perubatan Ayurvedic, majlis keagamaan dan sebagainya.

Permintaan untuk gaharu semakin tinggi walaupun pengeluaran semakin berkurangan menyebabkan harganya semakin meningkat setiap tahun. Kebanyakan gaharu dieksport kepada. pemborong-pemborong di Singapura, Timur Tengah, Hongkong dan Taiwan.

Harganya boleh mencecah sehingga RM14-18 ribu sekilogram untuk gred Double Super. Malahan harga pasaran untuk minyak gaharu juga amat tinggi iaitu RM45 ribu/kg (kaedah penggredan kualiti kayu dan minyak masih belum dipiawaian dan bergantung kepada penjual dan pembeli).

Asia Tenggara mengeksport gaharu bernilai RM48.3 million ke Arab Saudi dan bekalan hanya memenuhi 20% daripada permintaan pasaran.

Buat masa ini, kebanyakkan gaharu dikeluarkan daripada hasil hutan dan amat terhad. Tanpa penanaman semula. spesis ini akan terus diancam kepupusan disebabkan aktiviti pengambilan gaharu.

Penanaman gaharu di Malaysia masih baru dan belum popular, tetapi di negara lain seperti Indonesia, Thailand dan Kemboja sudah lama diusahakan. Malah ia mendapat sokongan yang amat kuat daripada pihak agensi kerajaan mereka dari segi modal dan teknologi.

Keseluruhan pokok gaharu (batang, daun & akar) berguna dan dapat dikomensilkan.

Penanaman pokok gaharu sesuai dijalankan di tanah terbiar, kawasan rezab hutan simpan, kawasan pembalakan yang telah diterokai dan dijalankan secara pertanian hutan ladang dan diintegrasikan dengan pelbagai tanaman lain seperti herba dan tanaman komoditi.


Source: herbatani.com

Gaharu Export Potential

IF you are looking for an investment with lucrative returns, look no further than the “black gold of the forest” — the agarwood, or better known as gaharu.

Each kilogramme of high-quality gaharu can fetch up to RM30,000 in the global market and prices are expected to surge as demand continues to rise.

But don’t tread into the forests scouring for them yet, for three good reasons — diminishing supplies, fine and jail if you have no permit to do so, and the market for wild gaharu could come to an end in the near future.

Instead, plant the Aquilaria or karas trees today, from which gaharu is derived, and you can expect to reap the rewards five to eight years down the line.

Produced only by “sick” trees infected by fungi, this highly sought after fragrant resin has a cohort of uses, from aromatherapy to spa baths, decorative furniture, perfume, chopsticks, weapon holders, massage oil, joss sticks and items of medicinal value.

The world’s gaharu production is able to meet only 20 per cent of the global demand, posing a huge potential for top exporters like Malaysia to cash in on the rewarding business.

Just by exporting some 200,000kg of wild gaharu a year to places like the Middle East, Singapore, Taiwan and France, Malaysia can rake in a whopping RM3 billion.

And that’s solid gaharu alone.

Meanwhile, gaharu oil, although fetching a lesser value at RM25,000 a litre, contributed nothing less than RM4 million to the economy two years ago.

The bulk of the 170 litres of exported oil went to the United Arab Emirates, according to the Malaysian Timber Industry Board.

However, concerns on dwindling supply have prompted the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to encourage everyone, from farmers and interested individuals to the private sector, to embark on karas plantation.

Wild gaharu especially the better-graded ones, could diminish from forests in the next 10 years due to over harvesting, according to the ministry’s secretary general, Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin.

Planting gaharu is a viable and sustainable option, and plantation from this region will become a significant source in a few years, he said.

Around 700ha of karas have been planted all over Malaysia by both the Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia and Forest Research Institute Malaysia for research and development, and by the private sector for exporting.

There are plans to expand the private plantation to 2,400ha in Sabah and 800ha in Selangor.

Interested planters can contact the Forestry Department to purchase saplings, which cost RM7-10 each, and also for technical assistance.

After four to six years, upon maturing, the trees will be injected with fungal pathogens to trigger gaharu production, and this can be harvested after five months to a year.

Suboh urged forestry departments and agencies to conduct further research on gaharu production on an operational scale.

The challenge is to come up with high-quality gaharu, the desired grade and predictable volume to make planting a viable proposition for commercial investment.

He said the quality and quantity of plantation-produced gaharu are expected to gradually increase and poised to replace wild gaharu.

“I’m confident we can do it,” “But we must move fast for our neighbours are much ahead of us. Still, it’s not too late to start now.” Other gaharu-exporting countries include Indonesia, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar.

Gaharu is a Lucrative Business

Shops selling aromatic gaharu oils and woodchips are sprouting in Kuala Lumpur to cater to Middle Eastern tourists. The business, however, is depleting a species of trees in the forest.

IT’S that time of the year that has come to be recognised as “Arab season”, where hordes of Middle Eastern tourists throng shopping malls and streets in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle.

Restaurants featuring Arabic cuisine have sprouted in the main boulevard of the Bukit Bintang area but a far more lucrative business catering to these tourists is the many outlets selling a type of fragrance in wood form or oil.

Billboards in Arabic, English and Bahasa Malaysia featuring incense burners, woodchips and perfume bottles advertise the goods – gaharu or agarwood.

A recent phenomenon, these outlets are targeting Arabs with a penchant for the aromatic products that come from forests in this part of the world. The fragrant wood is essentially the resin extracted from the infected part of gaharu-producing Aquilaria trees.

Retailer Abu Mishaal says the gaharu retail business began four years ago and the number of shops has increased lately. A random count showed at least a dozen such shops, including two new ones operating from a hotel lobby.

The business partner of Al-Anood says his best quality agarwood came from Cambodian and Malaysian forests. “We buy from many places but mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia. We get an average of 6kg a month from Malaysia but 50kg from Indonesia in the wood form.”

The black, aromatic oil in bottles is extracted from woodchips at a distillation plant in Kajang. Arriving in Malaysia seven years ago, the Yemeni businessman saw the potential of the business and supplied the perfumed oil to the Middle East before setting up shops in the city. The plant produces 2kg of oil each month and these are bottled in 3mg, 6mg and 12mg glass containers.

Like other gaharu outlets at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Al-Anood sells woodchips, oil and powder. “Tourists buy these as souvenirs for their friends and relatives back home,” he explains.

Woodchips range from RM100 to RM500 per kg for the average grades. The superior quality grade can fetch no less than RM5,000 per kg while a 12mg bottle of oil ranges from RM50 to RM200. However, prices for the best quality are determined by the buyers’ knowledge and bargaining skills.

Other nationalities like Cambodians and Thais have also joined the business. One outlet in a hotel lobby is helmed by a Bangladeshi who professes to have dabbled in gaharu and the Arabic perfumery industry since 1976. Differing from other perfume producers, the Muslim-Arab perfume industry relies on the alcohol-free gaharu oil extracts.

“We might set up a distillation plant here to ease supply flows,” says the trader. “Currently, we depend on our two Jakarta factories for the oil extracts. It all depends on the supply of woodchips and market demand. It’s a bit too soon to tell as my shop is not officially open yet,” he says, adding that he is in the process of obtaining the required business licences.

He points out that local supply of the woodchips is shrinking and high quality resin is a rarity these days. The best quality gaharu is burned directly as incense by wealthy Arabs during important functions. Due to declining quality, traders are turning to distillation to add value to an otherwise low quality yield.

The traders claim that it is not an offence for tourists to carry a few bottles or packets of the woodchips home as these are for personal use.

“They don’t need any Cites certificate. Our raw materials are acquired legally hence the end products are also legal,” assures Abu Mishaal. Harvest of the woodchips is supposedly regulated by the respective state Forestry Department.

The entire genus of Aquilaria was listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in late 2004 with mounting concerns over the sustainability of the trade. International trade of the species is regulated by a permit system to show that the specimen was acquired with no detrimental effect to its survival in the wild.

Both traders say their businesses are registered with the Malaysian Timber Industrial Board (MTIB) – the management authority for Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah on timber-related Cites species.

But enquiries to MTIB – on regulating the growing gaharu trade and closing Custom loopholes which do not cover gaharu oil – went unanswered. It is learnt that MTIB has not issued any Cites import certificates or re-export permits for gaharu products made from imported woodchips or resin, indicating that the bulk of the Bukit Bintang trade is effectively illegal.

At a workshop organised by Traffic (a WWF-IUCN trade monitoring group) in March, an official from MTIB said stringent checks were needed at airports as there have been cases of gaharu woodchips being declared as other products. He said it was difficult to control the trade and suggested monitoring at the harvesting stage and commercial plantation to meet market demand.

Previously, MTIB’s director of licensing and enforcement Norchahaya Hashim said exporters must produce the respective state extraction permit, the licence number of the processors and receipt of the royalty payment before applications were processed. She noted then that MTIB needed the support of the Customs and Excise Department to curb smuggling at entry and exit points, adding that awareness of the issue has to be raised among relevant agencies.

Kelantan implemented a licensing scheme on gaharu collection, processing and trading last year but other states have been slow in recognising the value of the resin.

Stringent licensing at the state level and licensing of traders like those at Bukit Bintang would curtail uncontrolled harvest.

Gaharu Inoculation - How to

How to inoculate Gaharu for its valuable resin?

Inoculation is a method was developed to induce the production of gaharu in young plantation trees. The trees are wounded or inoculated in a specific manner and the gaharu production as the natural defence response is supported by applying specific treatments. This method can ensure the sustainable production of gaharu in plantation trees.


The artificial inoculation process involves creating holes on a karas tree, filling them with fungal pathogen, and sealing them off with wax

Produced only by “sick” trees infected by fungi, this highly sought after fragrant resin has a cohort of uses, from aromatherapy to spa baths, decorative furniture, perfume, chopsticks, weapon holders, massage oil, joss sticks and items of medicinal value.

After four to six years, upon maturing, the trees will be injected with fungal pathogens to trigger gaharu production, and this can be harvested after five months to a year.

Gaharu Commercial Production

Researchers are looking at various inducement techniques to produce aromatic gaharu on a commercial scale.

The Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (Frim) began researching in the late 1990s following a surge in market demand for gaharu and is still refining its inoculation technique.

Based on anecdotes from Orang Asli collectors, researchers deliberately wound the tree trunk and indeed, gaharu was produced in varying degrees of formation, suggesting that it can be induced in standing Aquilaria trees by artificial means. But the grade obtained was inconsistent.

Over 100 Aquilaria malaccensis saplings were planted on a 1ha trial plot at the institute’s research station at Bukit Hari between 1998 and 2000. Artificial inducement was carried out after three years but the trees did not respond.

FRIM research co-ordinator Dr Chang Yu Shyun suspects that the trees were not mature enough to produce the resin.

"In nature, when a branch or twig is broken, the wound attracts bacteria, fungi and pathogens. In gaharu-producing species like Aquilaria, the tree will produce the resin to contain the infection from spreading, covering the wound and blackening the whitish heartwood. That’s how gaharu is produced.

"The challenge is to come out with high quality or the desired grade and predictable volume to make planting a viable solution to over-harvesting of wild species," says Chang.

The senior research officer in the biotechnology division says the research initially focused on inoculation trials but later expanded to cover the biological aspect, economic value, trade and chemical analysis of the fragrant resin.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Institute of Nuclear Technology (Mint) has applied nuclear irradiation technology to mass-produce plantlets via tissue culture.

Seeds were screened for fast-growth and single-bole characteristics at the cellular level and lead researcher Dr Rusli Ibrahim claims he has found the secret formula after one year of experimentation.

"With this technique, we can fast-track the growing stage. Many plantation investors will benefit from this advancement."

Five hundred plantlets are growing in a trial plot near Dengkil. Rusli says two other research groups will look for suitable antagonists to induce the tree and the best extraction technique to yield oil of the desired chemical composition.

The hill within the MINT compound was recently discovered to host 157 matured Aquilaria trees. "At the end of the year, we intend to invite two United States experts to demonstrate to the growers the right way of inoculating these trees," says Rusli.

MINT has submitted four funding proposals under the Ninth Malaysian Plan to support the research work which will also include developing a standard grading system for woodchips and oil extracts.