Mahogany Market Demand

Mahogany has been harvested and traded internationally for over 500 years.

During the 1990s, the United States imported an average of 108,000 cubic meters of mahogany a year with a value of between US$ 50 - US$ 70 million. A single 5 cubic meter mahogany log can provide enough timber to assemble over 10 solid mahogany dining tables with a retail value of US$ 125,000.

In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund reported that the harvesting of mahogany from forests was unsustainable with only one species remaining commercially viable.

Brazil, a major logger and exporter of mahogany from forests in the Amazon basin halted all mahogany harvesting and the United Kingdom, a major supplier of mahogany in Europe, no longer imports mahogany harvested from forests making plantation grown mahogany increasingly important as a renewable source of this valuable timber.

With expanded restrictions on the trade and use of mahogany from forests the demand for plantation grown mahogany is expected to remain strong.

Sources: Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund