ASEAN-focused who’s-who you can tap for propagation, inoculation, and harvest know-how. I kept it practical: who they are, why they matter, and what kind of partnership makes sense.
1. Asia Plantation Capital (APC) – Malaysia/Thailand (private sector)
Scale operator with R&D, patented inoculation, and an agarwood factory/distillery in Johor for chips & oil—useful benchmark for end-to-end integration. Partnership angle: study tours, process benchmarking, contract distillation best practices.
2. Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) – Malaysia (public research)
Long-running agarwood program: species work on A. malaccensis, grading systems, inoculation/cultivation trials; national CITES/NDF inputs. Partnership angle: protocol/advisory MOU, training on grading & quality, lab support.
3. Assoc. Prof. Pakamas Chetpattananondh, Prince of Songkla University – Thailand (academic/processing)
Chemical engineering researcher linked with APC’s research agenda; Thailand studies on hydrodistillation kinetics and oil quality appear around PSU circles. Partnership angle: short course on distillation, oil QC methods, yield optimization.
4. AFoCO (Asian Forest Cooperation Organization) – Cambodia focus (regional public initiative)
Leading a current project to restore native A. crassna & A. malaccensis in SW Cambodia; active on livelihoods, restoration, and policy coordination. Partnership angle: join knowledge exchanges, restoration/intercrop models, access to training materials.
5. Vietnam Academy of Forest Sciences (VAFS) & Vietnam research network – Vietnam (public research + industry links)
Vietnam has >10,000 ha of A. crassna; strong literature on hydrodistillation & oil chemistry; VAFS is an industry reference point used for wood/ID certificates (e.g., Oud Vietnam). Partnership angle: compare crassna vs. malaccensis oil profiles; QC/standards exchange.
6. FORDA/BRIN & Indonesian researchers (incl. Mulyadi Turjaman) – Indonesia (public research)
Indonesia’s forestry research has mapped millions of planted agarwood trees and published feasibility/dynamic-systems models for cultivation; deep experience with Fusarium-based induction and monitoring. Partnership angle: protocol exchange on biological inoculation and plantation economics.
7. Putz Agarwood Farm Corporation (PAFC) – Philippines (private sector)
Licensed PH plantation developer with operations in Antique; shares practical PH context on permits and commercialization. Partnership angle: peer-to-peer on DENR compliance (W/C WCuP), local seedling sources, and site management in Visayas conditions.
8. Dadvance Agarwood Solutions (with FRIM collaboration) – Malaysia (private sector + research linkage)
Reports successful A. malaccensis harvest outcomes under FRIM-linked collaboration; shows how SMEs can plug into public research. Partnership angle: pilot inoculation trials and metrics for resin formation.
9. AAVI Siam – Thailand (private sector, oud distillation)
Producer focused on “top-grade” oud oils and derivatives; potential window into Thai processing SOPs & market requirements. Partnership angle: compare Thai oil specs, buyers’ preferences, and small-batch vs. scale tradeoffs.
Sources: Chatgpt