east v.s. west conflict – read on!, page-20

Actually Lord one of the major end users of spicatum and album oil is in the chewing tobacco market in India (guess it doesn't taste like cat's excrement?). Perfume is but one end use.

The attractiveness of any sandalwood oil for perfumery is less about its odour in any case and more about its fixative properties. Other smells can be successfully 'meshed' together as sandalwood provides the chemical glue to bind and for a economically enhancive time frame.

Other markets include cosmeceuticals, particularly for spicatum given its strong anti-microbial properties.

JID TFC have merely inherited interest in the spicatum nuts that came from the purchase of Mt. Romance. David Brocklehurst had a chemist working on the nut oil for around 18 months prior to the takeover. Westcorp are also in a similar position in funding research. It would be nice if TFC continued investment but they do not have ownership over any of the spicatum production base and so would be competing in the open market for supply. They do have a brand which could easily move nut oil cosmeceutical products. A$44/kg is not a sustainable price for spicatum nuts (about the size of a 20c piece) and once the price realigns to lower levels demand will be interesting to follow. Just a point of interest, Unilever developed a patent on the use of the santalbic acid component of the spicatum nut oil for use as a food additive in the food manufacturing sector with some amazing claimed benefits. They since onsold that to a Malaysian Oil Palm giant the name of which escapes me. This sale went ahead prior to Unilever's knowledge of the growing production base for this fatty acid in WA's spicatum industry now well in excess of 10,000 hectares. Santalbic acid production has been confined to another member of the Santalaceae family in Southern Africa called Ximenia. Santalbic acid is also in used as an additive to shampoo to control dandruff. It is an interesting plant family with many commercial opportunities. I just hope the MIS model if it implodes here with TFC doesn't taint investment flows into the spicatum sector. Interestingly the Rewards Group won't touch Indian Sandalwood and are the largest growers of Australian Sandalwood though a number of their earlier orchards are very poorly designed and were overstocked until some costly thinnings were doen recently.