If you love exotic hardwood get ready for a shock:
Especially Brazilian cherry, tigerwood (aka Koa), walnut, angelim, amendiom, brazilian hickory, brazilian maple, south American pecans, oaks, maples, rosewood, teak and well let’s just say the list goes on and on.
Exotic hardwood of all kinds will be going up in price immediately.
We have been warning of this for some time, but it is happening today and tomorrow and for the next several months.
The solid hardwoods in the wider widths will be especially hard hit.
There are a number of factors involved, but let’s just say for the guys who try to us sustainable forests and producers the prices are going to keep going through the roof. For the guys who are dealing in smuggled timber and other practices I would expect them to keep raising prices just to take more $$ yet still under price the legitimate materials.
I did a quick analysis over the weekend at some competitors on tigerwood and jatoba (aka Brazilian Cherry) and saw amazing differences.
We had a number of competitors selling products for $12-$15 per foot for the same products we are selling for $5-$7.
The good news is although I expect our price to go from $5-$7 to $7-$9 I would expect main street retailers to raise their prices to $15-$18.
The affordability of these floors is about to really be impacted.
If you ever wanted Brazilian Cherry, Tigerwood, Brazilian Walnut, Angelim or other exotics I suggest act now or be prepared to pay more in the future.
Although with any commodity prices ebb and flow from time to time I see long term pressures coming for exotic imported species.
As those prices raise, by the way, so will the domestic oak and maples since they don’t have to compete as aggressively with the imported “exotic” species (sometimes referred to as tropical timber) as much. So this impacts everyone over the long haul.
Don’t believe me? Well Norway has already banned tropical timber from entering their country. New Zealand has a more rigid import policy than they did even 1 year ago. The United States is drafting legislation which I expect will curb a HUGE number of imports. The EU in general is enacting tougher standards that started in 2006 with progressively higher hurdles in the future.
What does this mean? Well the legitimate materials have a higher bar they must jump over to prove they are the good guys. So they raise their price to offset the higher operational costs of compliance.
I am 100% for the right kind of harvesting and I could not support that more! However, I think there will be a bit of chaos for the next 18-36 months which will lead to unnecessary price increases which could impact consumers in a big way.
Anyway – I have ranted long enough. Enough said.
