ITC expands plantation interests
Fund manager ITC is expanding its sandalwood plantation operations to northern Queensland after acquiring a property there late last year.
The Melbourne-based fund manager has been growing sandalwood in the Ord River Irrigation Area in Western Australia since 2000.
ITC chief executive officer Vince Erasmus said the Ord River plantations had been expanded to 1,400 hectares and the company would continue planting more sandalwood trees.
“In the coming weeks, we will extend our sandalwood operations to the Lakeland region north of Cairns,” he said.
“This will soon thereafter be followed by our commencement of a sandalwood establishment in south-west Western Australia near Albany.”
The push behind the expansion of sandalwood plantations has been the dramatically rising price for the wood and its oil.
Sandalwood oil is used extensively in the global perfume industry and the wood is sought after for Asian religious ceremonies.
Erasmus said strong supply and demand is making it one of the most valuable woods in the world.
ITC has also conducted tests on the quality of the oil being produced from early plantings of trees in Ord River.
“We have conducted oil sampling on sandalwood trees aged seven to eight years and found satisfactory quantities of commercial oil in all samples,” he said.
“These test results are very positive and are fully consistent with our expectations.”
Erasmus said the next stage in developing the sandalwood business would be processing trials in preparation for full-scale commercial production.
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