20 Year Anniversary

    20 years ago we founded Tropical American Tree Farms.

    After completing more than a decade of research during the 1980’s on tropical hardwood tree farming, we founded Tropical American Tree Farms in 1991.  In the last week of July of that year we contracted with a private nursery to produce the first 10,000 teak seedlings for our first Tropical American Tree Farms planting.

    Now, 20 wonderful years and millions of planted tropical hardwood trees after that modest beginning, we are excited to be celebrating our 20th Anniversary.

A Near Perfect Asset

    We often receive warm comments from tree owners very thankful that they own tropical hardwood trees.

    Unlike other investments, you can enjoy the peace of mind knowing that your trees continue to grow and produce, irrespective of the stock market news.

    Bloomberg Wealth Manager writes that investing in trees grown for harvest, for profit is ". . . a source of almost assured growth in tumultuous times."

    Smart Money Magazine writes that " . . . real prices for timber have steadily risen for more than 100 years - better performance than any other commodity . . ."

    Smart Money also says that ". . . timber is a near perfect asset."

    You may enjoy reading Investing in Tropical Hardwoods excerpting more observations by top investment professionals in The Economist, Smart Money Magazine, MoneyWeek, and the Bloomberg Wealth Manager about investing in timber being grown for harvest.

Costa Rica No. 1 in World in Citizen Happiness

    A very kind tree owner has sent us an article reporting that a recent survey of the 143 countries that are home to 99% of the world's population found that Costa Rica "is the happiest place on earth, and one of the most environmentally friendly."

    "Costa Ricans have a life expectancy of 78.5 years, and 85 percent of the country's residents say they are happy and satisfied with their lives."

    It is a pleasure doing business here.

Tropical American Hardwoods

    We are very pleased to announce that now that our farms are producing substantial quantities of more mature tropical hardwoods that are of a quality that can go directly into the international market, we have established a sister company, Tropical American Hardwoods, to market our tropical hardwood lumber directly into the international wholesale market.

    As a small part of that marketing endeavor, Tropical American Hardwoods has created two new tropical hardwood wholesale marketing websites, one of which, EcoHardwoods, is to appeal directly to the environmentally conscious market segment.

    We anticipate that eventually Tropical American Hardwoods will market hardwoods produced by other tropical hardwood plantations as well.

    The two websites are Tropical American Hardwoods, and EcoHardwoods.

    Below are photos of teak from 13-14 year thinnings being prepared to ship.

teak lumber from 13-14 year thinnings being prepared to ship

An Example of Raleo's Work

    An example of Raleo's work, all crafted from our Tropical American Tree Farms tropical hardwood trees, received mention in the September 2007 issue of Boat International USA.

    Boat International writes that “One of the most eye catching elements on board is the spiral central stairway that connects the three decks” and acknowledges that the Pillow wall of the three storey stair barrel is by Raleo. 

Raleo teak Pillow panels of Lady Michelle spiral stair barrel

Looking down three decks showing Raleo teak Pillow panels

    Raleo was also commissioned to craft the panels and doors of the Sky Lounge in this magnificent yacht.

Lady Michele Sky Lounge with gmelina panels and doors by Raleo

    You may enjoy the whole article here.

    Young tropical hardwoods from our farms are truly beautiful.

Teak Lumber Prices

    The best published independent authority we have found for international large-scale wholesale tropical lumber prices is the ITTO, or International Tropical Timber Organization, which publishes frequent Tropical Timber Market Reports with, in their words, “the aim of improving transparency in the international tropical timber market.”

    The February 15, 2008 ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report, their most recent report that includes the US imported sawnwood prices, shows that the average US Imported Sawnwood Prices for rough sawn teak lumber is $2,125 per cubic meter, or $5.01 per board foot. 

    In the same Market Report, the price reported for first quality teak lumber in the U.K. market is $4,160 to $4,804 per cubic meter, or $9.81 to $11.33 per board foot.

    Clearly our trees are still young and their lumber is not yet at its prime, and not every log will yield first quality lumber, but it is exciting that the actual prices independently reported for adult teak are significantly higher than the conservative $3.11 per board foot price for adult teak in our projections.

Note: To calculate the per board foot price, divide the cubic meter prices by 424, the number of board feet in a cubic meter. 

    We thank you very much for your interest in Tropical American Tree Farms™.

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