KOTA BARU: At RM10,000 or more a kilogramme, agarwood certainly lives up to its name of "the black gold of the forest".

It is, therefore, not surprising that more local investors are planting aquilaria trees, better known as karas or depu, which yield the valuable heartwood.

Agarwood, or gaharu in Malay, is extracted from these large evergreen trees, which are native to Southeast Asia.

They produce a valuable aromatic oil used extensively in the Middle East and Asia in religious ceremonies, personal fragrance, incense and other scented products besides being used as a medicinal herb by the Chinese.

Agarwood Plantations Sdn Bhd marketing director Wan Ab Malik Wan Mamat said indiscriminate harvesting had resulted in the trees being listed as endangered .

He said trees grown in plantations provided a renewable source of agarwood.

He said the depletion of trees was because of illegal harvesting and low production in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam had led to spiralling prices in the global market. The region meets about 20 per cent of global demand.

The company has been involved in the industry since 1999, starting work with a local company near Bangkok, on 400ha.

Since starting in Kelantan about two years, it has planted about 1,000 trees and set up demonstration farms in Kadok and Mulong near here and Selising in Pasir Puteh.

Wan Ab Malik said the company would be going into large-scale planting of trees at a 400ha site in Nenggiri, Gua Musang, this year, where it would be offering a unique investment opportunity to the public.

Under the scheme, the public can buy a tree for RM100 each and redeem it after the trees mature in seven years at nine-fold the original price.

"All participants will receive a certificate stating the number of the plots of land planted with trees.

"We also guarantee that any plant which dies will be replaced".

Wan Ab Malik explained that the company used the latest nanotechnology to induce the formation of agarwood in trees unlike in earlier days where karas trees were hacked with axes to get to the oil.

He said the new process not only assured the formation of substantial agarwood but also a quality end-product.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/National/2532590/Article/index_html