sandalwood production in china

This piece is from a recent sandalwood conference held in the Pacific on the sandalwood plantation industry in China nobody knew anything about ...

"In 7 year old trials less than 10% had started to form heartwood."

Waiting for TFC's coring program with great anticipation ...

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SANDALWOOD IN CHINA
Prof. Daping Xu, Research Institute of Tropical Forestry

At present there is around 1500 ha of Santalum album established in China ranging from 1-5 years old. The quoted aim is for 5000 hectares by 2015. Sandalwood is being planted in the tropical zones of South China in hilly and mountainous areas.

Trials have been ongoing for a number of years and it has been shown that heartwood formation is better in tropical than subtropical environments. There is less risk of extreme frosts here also in the winter months. In 7 year old trials less than 10% had started to form heartwood.

All plantations are established with seedlings propagated from tissue culture. The seedling price has decreased from US$4 down to US$0.50 per seedling using this technology and nursery capacity stands at around 5 million seedlings annually. Cuttings have also been tried but have proven unsuccessful due to low rooting percentage.

Kuhnia rosmarnifolia is used as a primary host for the first 2 years and Tephrosia candida is utilised from 2 years onwards. The long tem host is Dalbergia odorifera, the best rosewood in the world. The Chinese are focussed on the benefits of having mixed species plantings. Sandalwood are now also being utilised as trees for parks and on roadside verges. When land is scarce every tree must have a purposed above pure aesthetics.

Chinese are very interested in genetic resource ?exchange? for all Santalum species. At this stage there does not appear to have been any focus on Santalum spicatum but presumably given the size of China and range of climate zones it covers there is likely to be some areas that could be suitable to our Australia species.

In summary industry development is in its early stages and obviously there are many competing land use options in China. However China does have some ability to influence the timber market in the future. It has a large capacity to move research exactly where it wants it and no shortage of labour to achieve anything it sets its mind to.