Lord the largest growers are the Rewards Group and the Forest Products Commission (around a third of area each). WA Sandalwood is the next largest grower. And the rest is made up of smaller producers like me.
Mt Romance have no ownership of any of the production base. They are merely buyers of sandalwood timber and have recently purchased Australian sandalwood timber for A$14,000/t which is a record. This kind of underscores a theory of mine whereby I can see the price of spicatum timber rising and album timber falling as the credit crisis drives end users towards the larger, cheaper and more reliable resource base here in WA.
The value in nuts has been driven by demand from the plantation establishment sector. However many are now racing to utilise the valuable oil component (Mt Romance included) of the seed in the manufacture of cosmeceutical products and even health products. Trying to realise a similar story to Moringa oil which has just been picked up by the Body Shop. The nuts possess a novel fatty acid known as santalbic acid and this has some exciting markets developing.
TFC Price at posting:
$1.13 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
