I don’t know how any particular year’s trees are going, but do...

I don’t know how any particular year’s trees are going, but do know that a lot was learnt in the first 5 or so years of plantation planting, so am confident that the production of the next few years shall improve rapidly. I am growing 15 Ha of Sandalwood, but it isn’t being managed by Quintis. I get an annual report on tree survival and growth rates. I would expect this from my business manager. I am talking with FW and Scotty, as they seem to know more about Sandalwood markets than anyone else I have struck. But I wouldn’t get FW to run my business.
Seems to me that the only chance for growers is to band together and replace the RE, so they can be sure the RE is working for them and not the company/ Administrator or debt holders. I think Teague has the right idea, as he saw when push went to shove, the RE was beholding to the board and so wasn’t likely to get best deal for growers, as shown by the prices for recently harvested wood. There is now a lot of growing skill developed to ensure good Sandalwood production. We are 10 years ahead of the rest of the world in this. There is a growing market in a high value product, with large barriers to entry - I haven’t seen this in many agricultural products.
How individual growers have financed their treelots is a separate issue - the present problems are related to financing, not so much production, though there is a production problem in the first few years when they were learning.