HOGA Gaharu Tea Valley Gopeng 务边務邊沉香山茶园, Perak

Gaharu Tea Valley, Gopeng (12 August 2017)

HOGA Gaharu Tea Valley Gopeng (GPS: 4.458491, 101.192954) is an agarwood plantation in Gopeng, a short distance from Ipoh, Perak. Covering some 300 acres, it is the first mono crop Gaharu plantation in Malaysia. I visited it with my wife when we were vacationing at The Haven Resort in Ipoh. The area planted with agarwood is so large, that we could see whole hills planted with Gaharu trees, looking like a forest with very neatly arranged trees.

From an inital batch of 200 seedlings of 12 Gaharu species which was brought here by a Japanese agricultural researcher, the founder of the plantation, a Mr Ho, now has some 200,000 Gaharu trees. The Gaharu products are sold under the brandname Hoga. You will see the names "Gaharu Tea Valley Gopeng" and "Hoga" appearing interchangeably throughout the park. To strengthen their brand, I hope that in future the company will settle on using only one of the two names.

Gahatu Tea Valley is today designed like a nature theme park. Visitors can tour the grounds, stopping at various sights such as the Viewing Stage, Hugging Park and Lovers' Park. The plantation is now a local tourist attraction, receiving busloads of tourists every day. There is a visitor centre with gift shop where visitors can purchase agarwood products. Visitors can also view the Time Gallery, which is a museum showing how the plantation was started. There is also a deli for visitors to have a meal.