Vietnamese woodsmen find precious wood

Vietnamese woodsmen find precious wood

Authorities are probing reports that a group of lumberjacks in central Vietnam stumbled across 10 kilograms of precious agarwood (Aquilaria crassna), worth billions of dong on the market.
After being tipped off about the incident, several people from Ho Chi Minh City arrived in Quang Nam province’s Dai Loc district Monday afternoon to try and buy the wood.
But they left disappointed after someone told them that Tuan, leader of the group alleged to have found the wood, had immediately sold 9.8 kilograms to two men for just VND2.4 billion (US$150,000) or half the Vietnam market price.
Thanh Nien tried to contact Tuan but in vain. Its correspondents, however, met his colleagues who claimed each of them got just VND20 million-VND30 million ($1,250-$1,870) from the deal.
Nguyen Ngoc Dung, a local party official, told Thanh Nien that authorities were verifying the rumors.
“If they did discover a large quantity of agarwood, we would report this to our superiors,” he said. It is illegal to exploit the precious wood in Vietnam.
Last year another group of lumbermen were rumored to have found 100 kilograms of the wood. However, they claimed they found only a dozen kilograms.
Agarwood is among the most expensive woods in the world. It fetches VND500 million ($31,250) per kilogram in Vietnam and $50,000 in Taiwan.
Stored by many as an asset, the wood is revered for its medicinal properties and aromatic essence.
Reported by Dang Ngoc Khoa – Translated by Hoang Bao