Why is teak expensive? Plantation teak, grades and what drives price

Why is teak wood so expensive?

Because four things add up: the tree takes decades to yield usable timber, only part of the trunk has the durability you are paying for, it is a demanding wood to machine, and demand outstrips supply. None of them depends on the furniture brand.

The Wood Database puts it plainly: despite being grown on plantations around the world, teak is still very expensive, perhaps one of the most expensive timbers on the market in large, unfigured sizes. Sinergia Contract, in its guide to hospitality materials, puts the rising price down to high demand and limited availability.

• Time. On Java's state plantations, the felling cycle is 40 to 80 years. Throughout that time the tree occupies land that has to be managed.
• Yield. The durability teak is known for belongs to its heartwood, the inner, darker part of the trunk. The paler sapwood is not considered durable, and it is less use in an outdoor piece.
• Machining. Teak contains up to 1.4% silica, which The Wood Database says has a pronounced blunting effect on cutting edges. More sharpening and more tool changes mean more hours per piece.
• Legality. Since 1 January 2013, Indonesia has required a V-Legal document to export timber, and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) applies to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026. Every documented step has a cost.

Which papers to ask for, and how to check them, is covered in the guide to EUDR, SVLK and FSC.

What is the difference between plantation teak and old-growth teak?

Old-growth teak comes from slow-growing wild trees, mainly in Myanmar; plantation teak is grown on managed land. With Myanmar teak under sanctions, the practical question today is which plantation the timber comes from, and with what paperwork.

The trade uses Burmese teak for wild-grown trees from Myanmar, to set it apart from plantation teak. The Wood Database notes one visible difference: faster-grown plantation wood tends to be semi-ring-porous, while slower-grown wild wood is more distinctly ring-porous. The same source does not compare their strength or stability, so be wary of anyone who claims a difference without data.

After the military takeover in Myanmar in February 2021, sanctions were placed on imported Myanmar teak, as The Wood Database records, linking the trade to human-rights abuses. For a European buyer, that moves the conversation to plantations.

Plantation teak from Java

On Java, teak in the state forests is managed by the state-owned company Perum Perhutani. According to a paper by the company itself, published by the FAO, it manages more than a million hectares of teak plantation, on felling cycles of 40 to 80 years depending on the site and on social factors. That long cycle explains much of the price: the tree ties up land and labour for decades before it yields any timber.

What do grade A, B and C teak mean?

They are a trade way of describing which part of the trunk was used, not a class set by any standard. Each seller applies them in its own way, so grade A on one website does not promise the same as on another.

Definitions vary, but most agree on the basics:

Since the grade is not standardised, it is more useful to ask about what lies behind it:

• Are the visible and weather-exposed faces all heartwood, or is there sapwood?
• Is it solid timber, or does it include boards, veneer or finger-jointed strips?
• What moisture content was the timber dried to before it was worked?
• Which plantation does it come from, and with what legality documents?
• Can I see a sample or a finished piece before the order is made?

A sample tells you more than any letter. Kadek sends a technical drawing and a sample of the piece or the finish for approval before production, and finished pieces can be seen at the showroom in Madrid. Ask too, in writing, which plantation the timber comes from and how much heartwood the visible faces carry.

Why does one teak piece cost more than another?

Mostly because of how much timber goes into it and how much work. Two teak chairs can look alike in a photo and have nothing in common in the thickness of their parts, their joints or their finish.

That is why comparing the price of two teak pieces without comparing these points is misleading. A cheaper chair may use less timber, more sapwood or simpler joints, and the difference shows years later, when the hotel is already using it every day.

What is the price of teak per cubic metre?

It depends so much on origin, log diameter, quality and drying that a figure without context is no use for comparison. That is why this guide gives no price per cubic metre: it changes with every batch and every market.

Besides, the price of raw timber says little about the price of a piece of furniture. Between the log and the finished piece, timber is lost in sawing, in drying and in separating heartwood from sapwood, and then come workshop hours, finishing, packing and freight. A tabletop sold by the piece and a plank sold by the cubic metre are different products.

If you need a benchmark, ask for quotes against the same specification: dimensions, section thickness, timber quality, finish and quantities. It is the only comparison that holds up. And if you are torn between teak and a cheaper timber, the guide to outdoor wood for furniture compares teak with iroko, acacia and pine.

Does buying direct from the factory make teak cheaper?

It can, because it removes intermediaries between the workshop and the project, but it does not change what the timber and the work cost. What changes is how many margins are added along the way.

In a long chain, a piece can pass from the factory to an exporter, an importer, a distributor and then a shop or contract supplier. Each link adds its own margin and its own warehouse. Buying from the maker shortens that chain, and lets you discuss dimensions, timber and finishes with the people who build the piece.

Kadek sells at factory prices from its own workshops in Central Java, with no minimum order, and sends a quote with prices, lead times and finishes within two working days. If a piece needs different dimensions or a different finish, the process is explained on the custom furniture page.