A year ago I looked at Tropical American Tree Farms to have them raise some teak as a financial investment. Before I even considered investing money, I asked them for references and they gave me 3 (2 of which were in my city). I called each and everyone basically said the same thing. That the people running the show were trustworthy, but that there were 2 main problems:
- The 8-10 year 'thinnings' didn't produce commercially usable teak since it was so young. Young teak doesn't have the water/rot resistence the older stuff has. Basically you had to wait 25 years before you'd have something in return. To solve that problem they were trying to create a market for that young wood with their own line of very high end 'indoor' furniture. Not sure where that's going.
- The company had no board of directors, so if something happend to the owners, you could be outta luck.
Now I get spammed from them saying they will sell you 3 year old teak trees, which are supposedly 30 ft tall, for %10 percent off the newly planted prices. Sounds interesting for woodworking, since you have only 5 yrs approx to wait until you have a decent supply of teak.
Has anyone actually done this with the intent of getting cheap tropical wood for woodworking? Is it financially viable to get the wood shipped to you from the thinnings? Any similar experiences?