Market Update – Successful Sale by Tender – Indian Sandalwood

PRESS RELEASE – 14 January 2020
Smith Agri international is pleased to formally release the results of the most recent Indian
Sandalwood (Santalum album) Request for Tender on behalf of Huntley Management in their
capacity as Responsible Entity for the TFS 2003 Project Growers, which concluded 21
November 2019.
Smith Agri International was appointed to conduct a highly transparent global Request for
Tender underpinning the high quality of the Santalum album resource that is renowned for its
high-quality oils that exist within the heartwood of this sustainably grown plantation resource.
The sandalwood plantation estate managed by Quintis Forestry represents the world’s largest
sustainably grown plantation Indian Sandalwood estate, a fact that continues to draw extensive
buyer interest from the active global sandalwood supply-chain (ie. traders, processors,
distributors and end users).
This is the second tranche of Santalum album resource Smith Agri International has released in
2019 and pleasingly bids were prevalent from multiple international and domestic parties with
offers placed across all 8 individual Lots, those Lots made up of Logs, Shavings and separately,
Butts.
Encouragingly for this expanding global market, the Lots have sold to four (4) very different and
independent buyers underpinning the expanse of Smith Agri Internationals global reach for this
growing market. Two of the successful buyers are international parties emanating from India
and the United Arab Emirates, with underbidders emanating from a range of different countries.
Given our 30 years of commercial forestry experience and in particular, our extensive
supply-chain logistical expertise in support of export markets, we were able to ensure all parties
irrespective of their global location or proposed end use, had the same opportunity as Australian
based industry to comfortably bid knowing they were bidding on an ‘apples for apples’ basis. All
bidders were provided the opportunity of assistance for transport and export logistics via Darwin
or Perth ports which was again a major factor in underpinning strong international interest.
Through our full-service offering, constructive feedback was encouraged from existing, new and
emerging bidders. These learnings underpin Smith Agri International’s commitment to ‘continual
improvement’ in support of this expanding market and these will be implemented in the 2020
Request for Tender transparently delivering further competitive tension.
A highlight of this tender has been the significant increase in the number of parties actively
engaged in this transparent process. In fact, we understand this is the first time international
based buyers, along with multiple buyers have been successful in acquiring resource from this
sustainably grown Santalum album plantation resource. We take great pride in this result and
subsequently, we expect the breadth of individual bidders to significantly grow further in the
knowledge that multiple international buyers have been highly competitive and ultimately
successful in this most recent tender.
Smith Agri International looks forward to the future release of tenders globally for this highly
valuable and highly sought-after resource, wherein we can further build upon the exceptional
engagement delivered throughout the global sandalwood supply-chain for these two recent
tenders. We have already started re-engaging with underbidders towards the next Request for
Tender.
Smith Agri International Pty Ltd is a specialist Agribusiness Transactions & Advisory team, licenced throughout
Australia as a professional real estate organisation specialising in the Agricultural / Horticultural / Timberland sectors
on behalf of sophisticated institutional, asset management, industry, family offices, high-net-worth individuals and
organisations prevelent throughout the global supply-chain.
For further information; www.smithagriinternational.com.au. Contact; David Smith +61 (0) 418 332 780