To meet the aspirational goal of 33 percent forest cover as envisaged in the National Forest Policy, 1988, it is imperative that the growth of agroforestry is accelerated in the country. Thanks to initiatives such as liberalizing the regulatory regime, developing improved clonal planting material, market linkage with pulpwood and paper industry and promotions schemes, farm forestry is expanding in the country. State Forest Development Corporations had also been raising pulpwood plantations on degraded forest land. However, fixing the price of natural resources such as timber, pulpwood, etc. is complex and risky as buyers are few and they tend to form cartels, in addition to elements of political economy. This case provides insights on a dilemma faced by the senior management of the Malabar forest development corporation in selling their Eucalyptus produce. The corporation was doing well, thanks to the conversion from seed based to clonal Eucalyptus plantations and a robust auction mechanism. In 2015, the corporation was about to auction 200,000 metric tonnes of its Eucalyptus produce spread over 5,000 ha and expecting to earn a revenue of INR 1,200 million. The state government was instead keen to allot the produce to a sick paper industry to save hundreds of jobs if there was a shutdown. The industry department of the state government conveyed this decision to the corporation and asked it to fix a suitable price for the Eucalyptus produce.