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Brazilian teak wants to grow on livestock farmland

Brazil has long been recognized for its ability to adapt foreign crops to local conditions. Neither soybeans or coffee, for example, are native to the country, and are two of Brazil’s most valuable agricultural exports. On a smaller scale, South America’s biggest nation is seeking to carve out a place in another global market: teak wood.

Native to Southeast Asia and prized for its durability, teak has a long history of use for construction, shipbuilding and fine furniture. Today, Brazil is cultivating the tropical hardwood commercially, especially in the agricultural powerhouse states of Mato Grosso and Pará.

Teak was traded from India to the Middle East as early as the first centuries AD, to be used to build temples and palaces. The Portuguese then used it for their emblematic caravel sailing ships. Today, its uses are equally lofty: luxury boatbuilding, high-end furniture, flooring, paneling and decorative doors. Demand remains strong in Asia — particularly in India and China — while European and American markets are growing, especially for certified sustainable wood.

Traditionally, countries with native teak forests such as Myanmar, India and Indonesia dominated the market. But export restrictions and the designation of forest areas as conservation units in the 1980s curtailed that supply. Commercial teak farms, now present in roughly 70 tropical countries, have filled that gap. Brazil leads production in Latin America, followed by Guatemala, Ecuador and Panama…

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