According to the Brazilian Association of Planted Forests, the planting of teak forests is one of the most rapidly advancing in Brazil.
In 2008 the cultivated area of teak increased 10% to almost 60000 hectares. In 2005 that number was 40,000 hectares. Reforestation projects have already attracted institutional forestry investors like pension funds and now there are signs that the teak industry is appealing to private forestry investors. The director of the company “Brazilian Forestry”, Luis Flavio Veit says “In the major timber producing countries such as Indonesia, the wood takes at least twice as long to reach the cutoff point, compared with Brazil,” The worldwide market for teak is growing at rates of 14% per year and domestic demand is high also.
The climate and soil conditions in Brazil encourage more rapid growth which is feeds the demand for more teak plantations. The forestry plantations are thinned in the early years to provide better growing conditions for the trees. The thinned trees extracted at this stage are often used by the biomass industry.for example as charcoal for the steel industry. Additional derivatives from the teak are bark and leaves which have a number of uses such as tannin agents.
Much of the final timber product is used in the high quality furnishings or even in the manufacture of boats, as the marketing manager of Intermarine( a leading shipbuilder in the country, specializing in high performance boats) Allyson Yamamoto commented, “We chose teak because of its beauty and durability. As the boats taking the sun and rain and are in environments with high humidity and salty air, it is important that the wood resist these conditions. In addition, the use of wood gives status to the product.”
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