Our client, a US$ 100M forest investment fund, is considering diversifying species within its projects. One species of interest is Gmelina (Gmelina arborea). Gmelina has been used in plantations e.g. in Latin America and Africa, but the understanding of the species are lacking from perspectives of 1) technical forest management, 2) requirements for efficient and high-quality end-result processing (e.g., board, sawn timber) and 3) market and end-uses. For this purpose, the client contracted Unique to provide recommendations for best practices in silviculture for a 2,000-5,000 hectare Gmelina project, to provide recommendations for treatments necessary to provide high quality end products (e.g., panels, sawn timber, plywood), and to conduct a comprehensive market analysis of global supply, demand and key end-products.

• Compiling data on global plantation area, productivity and production volumes
• Compiling Gmelina silvicultural practice and production costs in main producer regions
• Describing and quantifying uses of Gmelina and related product prices
• Identifying competitive advantages of Gmelina versus other species (costs, processing, products)
• Elaborating best practice recommendations for production and processing