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Members of the Bainbridge Rotary Club met at the Kirbo Center on Tuesday for their regular weekly meeting. The guest speaker for the day was Greg Frost, founder and owner of Gulf Coast Tung Oil. Frost explained the history of the tung oil industry, and how it failed in the last century due to a combination of market and environmental factors.

Harvested from the tung tree’s oily fruits, tung oil has a myriad of uses in paints and wood stains, to name just a few. Synthetic alternatives began to replace its use in paint, which partly contributed to the industry’s downturn. Frost is looking at releasing his own commercial line of tung wood stain in the near future, and thanks to changes in the market, including those synthetic paint replacements falling out of favor, he hopes that the industry can be reestablished in the country.

Following the presentation, Frost took questions from the audience.