We bought this 25 hectare finca in 2015 and in August of the same year we planted 20 hectares with teak. The rest consists of 2 smaller areas of forest and the bank of the Sandal River.
The farm is served by roadways and is accessible from two sides. It can be reached from the city of Nicoya in around 30 minutes.
In recent years, the company has increasingly focused on the cultivation and marketing of teak plantations. The reasons for this focus were:
the special properties of this wood
the great demand for teak
the high profitability of teak farms
Teak properties
Teak trees are relatively easy to plant and maintain if the soil and climate conditions are suitable, such as those prevailing in Costa Rica. They are very resistant to pests, drought and forest fires. From the 5th year onwards, the maintenance effort is relatively low and not very expensive.
Teak is one of the fastest growing types of hardwood. After just 5 years, trunk diameters of 10-15 cm and heights of up to 10 meters are achieved in our farms. At 20 years old, the ideal harvest age, the trees have a diameter of 25-35 cm and are up to 25 meters high.
In addition to its beautiful color and grain, the beaten teak is characterized above all by its high oil content. This greatly reduces water absorption and therefore leads to high resistance in outdoor applications
Demand for teak
Due to its excellent material properties, teak from plantations is used in various areas.
Garden furniture and decks
Parquet flooring
Doors
Indoor furniture
house building
The most important markets for teak are India, China, Indonesia, the USA and Europe. But demand for this wood is also increasing in Costa Rica itself, especially in the construction sector.
Activities on a teak plantation
All company teacan plantations are located on former pastureland. Forests are strictly protected in Costa Rica and cannot be cut down for plantations. That's why our farms consist of an average of 50 % of forest land.
Various factors are taken into account when selecting suitable properties:
Climatic conditions
Soil quality
Altitude
topography
Transport and electricity connections
Additional possible uses e.g. building a holiday home
When planting the farm at the beginning of the rainy season, we only use seedlings grown from certified seeds from Hermanos Cabalceta Aguilar SA. The trees are planted and fertilized at intervals of 3 - 3.5 meters.
During the first three years of a teacan planting, constant weed control is extremely important. Climbing plants and other competitors of the teak tree are cut back mainly with machetes until the sapling can assert itself at a height of around 5 meters. A constant task during the first 8 years of a teak tree's development is limbing, which ensures that the tree's growth is concentrated on the trunk. Thinnings are carried out after around 5, 9 and 13 years in order to reduce the 800 trees that were originally planted per hectare to 250 - 350 trees. This means the remaining ones have more room to grow and reach larger diameters.
The ideal harvest time for teak trees is around 20 years, as after that the wood mass only increases slowly. The logs can either be loaded on the farm into containers for export or sawn on site into squared timber for the domestic or foreign market.
Profitability
When calculating the profitability of a teak plantation, we assume 280 teak trees per hectare, which can be felled when they are 20 years old. With an average diameter of 30 cm and a usable length of 8 meters, these trees produce around 158 m3 of wood, of which 111 m3 can be sold due to 30% offcuts. At today's market prices, these 111 m3 fetch around 60,000 US$$ - after deducting all additional costs.
Our selling price for one hectare of one year old teak including maintenance costs for the first 7 years is an average of 15,000 US$. Further maintenance work can be covered by the proceeds from the thinning. This means: an investment of 15,000 US$ will result in income of 60,000 US$ after 19 years - plus the expected price increases for teak.
