Eucalyptus Trees, Update.

[Spaniel]

Back in 2010 I started a thread about growing eucalyptus trees on the 50 rai of land my wife has outside Kabinburi. Well we did get the 50 rai planted by mid 2010 with saplings and they are coming along nicely but of course still to small for the first cutting which we hope to do in a couple more years. My total "investment" so far has been B 144,000. That has covered everything from the purchase of the trees, planting, fertilizer, tractor driver, fuel, weeding etc etc. Wont know if this is a good investment for a couple more years when we do the first cutting but my wife assures me we will be making money! I told her I just want my B144,000 back. Has anybody eles been growing eucalyptus trees and if so what has been your experience?

[loong]

I would guess that prices could vary wildly depending on local demand, so it's probably best to check in your region.

About 3 years ago, around here, there were so many people growing Eucalyptus, that the price dropped like a stone.

Many sold for whatever they could get and then suffered the additional expense to have the stumps ripped out.

It may be that supply and demand is more in equilibrium in your area, so maybe the price will hold up.

[kwonitoy]

Don't plan on getting rich from Ecu

This is from my experience last year clearing ecu from 34 rai that I bought for the land, not the trees

We had a company come in and give us a quote to cut the trees, they offered us 30,000 baht profit for ourselves and it would take them 5 months. (our mistake was not to take this offer)

We decided to cut them ourselves, figureing there had to be a scam going on. The trees we had were second growth, and four years old so there was a combination of largeish trees and smaller ones

Present price in our area northeast of Udon is 700 baht per ton for large diameter trees, rangeing down to 400 baht per ton for smaller diameter, you'll need at least 5 years growth to get to the larger size.

Minus 150 baht per ton for trucking

Minus your labour costs for cutting the trees, include food, transportion, water, ice, tools for cutting, etc, etc. This adds up. I would take the money from selling the wood and put it in an evelope in my desk, on Saturday which is payday on our farm I would take this envelope and start paying the workforce. Only one week was I able to make the payroll from selling wood, the other weeks I had to dip into my own wallet.

Minus 3 week's of backhoe to dig out the stumps at 2,5000 baht per hour so the land could be planted into rubber

At the end of it all I made sweet f__k all on the ecua after 4 months of work.

The only saving grace in all this was that I got the land very cheaply to start with, so even with my input costs I got a large plot of quality land for a very good price. It was planted into rubber last year and they are doing great.

I told the wife if we ever buy any more ecua land to replant into rubber, I'll hire a Cat dozer and just pile the trees up and burn them. It'll be much quicker and cheaper

Around our area anyone that can afford it is cutting down the ecua that's been planted to turn the land over to rubber.

Maybe in 4 years you'll make some money off yours

I have read on other old threads the only sure way to make any money from Ecua is to have a contract with the paper mill, something to look into while there growing

Good luck

[David48]

Spaniel ... thanks for re-posting.

One thing I have learnt ... be careful so much that your neighbours don't start to help you cut your trees when they are more valuable. And it's not because you are a Farang ... just an opportunity!

And good luck for getting your money back from the Missus.

Just saying like ...

[Gary A]

There has been a eucalyptus tree buyer in our area for several weeks. A farang friend has some trees and asked that buyer to give him a price. He had a Thai guy negotiate the price for him. The buyer wouldn't go more than 300 baht per ton. The Thai guy told the buyer to get off the property. That was the end of the story.

[canopy]

In my area 4" diameter poles cost 90 baht each from people who have bins of them in their front yard for sale so that equates to fetching about 5000 baht a ton retail price for small trees in small quantities. By the way, is there an easy means to identify if you have the good or bad type of eucalyptus trees growing as far as wood quality is concerned? I'd like to know which type ones growing on my property are.

[Spaniel]

There has been a eucalyptus tree buyer in our area for several weeks. A farang friend has some trees and asked that buyer to give him a price. He had a Thai guy negotiate the price for him. The buyer wouldn't go more than 300 baht per ton. The Thai guy told the buyer to get off the property. That was the end of the story.

Thanks for the info which I relayed to my wife and sister-in-law. They said B300 per ton is not good. In the Kabinburi area the current price is B 1,300 per ton. I can only surmise that one of the following happened: the Thai guy who negotiated the price misunderstood the offer, or maybe he has poor quality eucalypts trees.