Indonesian furniture woods, explained.

Six timbers.

All of these are grown in Indonesia and all carry the same legality documents. What separates them is what they do once the piece leaves the workshop.

Teak

Natural oils and silica let it stand outdoors untreated for decades. Grown on long-rotation plantations, priced accordingly, and the grade question is how much sapwood the piece contains, because sapwood has none of the durability.

Acacia

A fast plantation hardwood that looks like teak when new and behaves nothing like it outdoors. Excellent value indoors and under cover, and it needs a maintained finish to survive exposure.

Mahogany

Plantation-grown in Java, stable and fine-grained, and it takes a finish beautifully. An interior timber, and species listings apply to some mahoganies so the botanical name belongs on the order.

Suar

Also called monkeypod or raintree. Grows very large, which is why it is the timber behind wide single-slab tables. Dramatic figure, and slab work lives or dies on how the drying was done.

Albasia

Very fast growing and very light, and the raw material for barecore panels rather than for solid furniture. Cheap and soft, and it is a component timber.

Mango

A by-product of orchards past fruiting, dense and often figured. Inexpensive, interesting, and variable because the trees were never grown for timber.

The decision that actually matters.

Not the species. The moisture content. A piece built at tropical equilibrium and delivered into a heated European or North American interior gives up water for weeks, and the movement opens joints and splits panels. This is the most common claim on Indonesian furniture and it applies to every timber on the list.

Specify the target moisture for your market, have it measured at loading with an instrument, and put it in the contract. A workshop with a kiln can hit a number and a workshop drying in the open air often cannot, and knowing which you are dealing with is worth more than the species conversation.

What the paperwork does not care about.

Indonesian timber legality applies to all of them equally, and the European deforestation regulation reaches all of them from December 2026. There is no cheaper documentary route for the cheaper wood, which surprises buyers who assumed the rules were about tropical hardwood specifically.

For the United States, the Lacey declaration needs the botanical species in Latin on every plant-product entry, and that includes finished furniture. Ask for scientific names at quotation stage, because a supplier who cannot supply them has given you something you cannot file.

Questions buyers ask.

Read next.

• EUDR and Indonesian goods

  What the EU Deforestation Regulation covers, the 30 December 2026 deadline, Indonesia's standard-risk classification, and why an SVLK certificate does not answer it.

• Indonesian teak furniture

  Where it is built, what the trade grade letters actually mean, the mandatory V-Legal document, and why SVLK alone no longer answers the EU.

• Indonesian acacia furniture

  Acacia is the volume alternative to Indonesian teak. Where it competes, where it does not, and what a contract has to name so you get what you priced.

• Indonesian mahogany

  Indonesian mahogany is real Swietenia macrophylla, grown on Java since Dutch times. The species is CITES-listed, and plantation origin does not remove that.

• Indonesian suar wood slabs

  Live-edge slabs cut from rain tree. What decides whether one arrives flat, what the legality paperwork is, and why a photograph tells you almost nothing.

• Indonesian albasia barecore

  A semi-finished panel bought by furniture factories on moisture, joints and glue. What to specify, and why albasia sits inside the EU deforestation rules.

• Indonesian wood veneer

  Sliced or rotary cut, sold in bundles by species and figure. What decides usable yield, and why the legality documents follow the veneer.

• Teak or acacia for outdoor furniture

  Two Indonesian hardwoods sold for the same job at very different prices. What the oil content changes, and where acacia is the right answer.

• Plywood or barecore

  Two Indonesian panel products for the same job. How each behaves under a veneer, and which one the moisture problem belongs to.

• Jepara furniture

  The only Indonesian furniture origin with a registered geographical indication. How the workshop structure works and what it means for an order.

• Why natural products vary

  Wood, stone, shell and crops are not manufactured. How to specify variation rather than fight it.