Iba Botanicals imports agarwood seedlings from India

THE first batch of 25,000 live agarwood-producing tree seedlings imported from India arrived in the Philippines, according to the chief executive of Iba Botanicals.

“With the arrival from India today by air, Iba Botanicals became the world’s first importer of live agarwood seedlings in full compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),” Ben Mead, founder and CEO of Iba Botanicals, told the Businessmirror.

Agarwood is the most expensive forest product in the world. Agarwood chips, obtained from the heartwood of Aquilaria species like the Aquilaria Malaccensis or locally known as lapnisan which is a naturally-occurring species in the Philippines, can fetch up to $100,000 per kilo.

However, lapnisan is also an endangered species which is why the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) strictly prohibits the harvesting from the wild of agarwood or any of the byproducts of lapnisan.

As a strategy to prevent its extinction in the wild, the DENR through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) is promoting the commercialization of Aquilaria trees. However, it requires those interested to venture into establishing agarwood production to secure all the necessary permits from concerned government agencies, particularly the DENR-BMB.

Among the first to secure special permits to import and establish lapnisan in the Philippines is Iba Botanicals,

which, as part of its advocacy, is promoting institutions and individuals to venture into agarwood production as the company’s partners.

“We are planning to put up agarwood plantations in Lipa, Batangas, and in Mindanao,” said Mead.

This year alone, Iba Botanicals has a permit to import 350,000 live agarwood-producing seedlings. In the next few months, the company said the seedlings will arrive in the country.

Mead said they complied with strict regulatory requirements in importing the agarwood-producing tree seedlings.

“We had to secure permits from 8 different agencies in India, and 3 here in the Philippines,” he said.

Iba Botanicals is a pioneer in the Philippine essential oils and natural extracts industries. Among its products are Ylang Ylang essential oils, Vetiver grass oil, and Elemi Essential oil.

It is planning to produce agarwood chips and essential oils in the next few years while reselling its imported agarwood-producing tree seedlings to institutional and individual buyers.