Agarwood Export
Prelims:
Environment
& Ecology, Geography
Mains:
GS
Paper III – Indian Economy, Agriculture
Current
affairs:
The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) and
CHEMEXCIL organised an Industry Summit on Prospects & Export of Agarwood
Oil from India in New Delhi and released the Roadmap for Agarwood Export
Promotion from the North Eastern Region (NER) to facilitate exports,
strengthen market linkages and promote higher-value trade in agarwood products.
Highlights:
1.
About Agarwood:
i.
Agarwood is the
highly valued resinous aromatic wood of Aquilaria species.
ii.
It is primarily
processed into agarwood chips and agar oil (oud oil).
iii.
Major applications
include perfumery, incense and other premium products.
iv.
Globally, agarwood
has strong demand in Gulf markets, while demand for premium fragrances
and other high-value applications is expanding across Europe, the United
States and East Asia.
2.
North East – India’s Agarwood Resource Base
i.
India has an
estimated 139.89 million agarwood trees, of which nearly 96.6%
are located in the North Eastern Region.
ii.
Assam has the largest resource base with around 114.3 million trees,
followed by Tripura with about 15.15 million trees.
iii.
Agarwood resources are also found in Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya
and other North Eastern States.
iv.
Promotion of agar
trees received recognition in the Union Budget 2026–27, while focused
export promotion was emphasised at the 73rd NEC Plenary in June 2026.
3.
Roadmap for Agarwood Export Promotion:
The Roadmap for Agarwood
Export Promotion from NER provides a coordinated framework involving government
agencies, North Eastern States, Export Promotion Councils and other
stakeholders.
Key measures initiated
include:
i.
Enhancement of
agarwood export quota.
ii.
Digitisation of Certificate of Origin.
iii.
Facilitation for personal
carriage of specified agarwood products.
iv.
Resource mapping in Assam and Tripura.
v.
Empanelment of validated
inoculum suppliers.
vi.
Initiation of GI
registration and standard development for agarwood oil.
vii.
An Agarwood
Export Promotion Cell was constituted in May 2026, involving the
Ministry of Commerce and Export Promotion Councils — CHEMEXCIL and SHEFEXIL.
4.
Value Addition & Market Development:
i.
The roadmap seeks to
transform the Northeast from merely a supplier of raw material into a
centre for the processing, science, standards and branding of Indian
agarwood.
ii.
It encourages
greater processing and distillation capacity within the Northeast so
that more value remains with growers and local communities.
iii.
Priority areas
include advanced extraction, distillation, scientific cultivation,
certification, traceability and origin branding.
iv.
MDoNER has supported
the Agarwood Cluster Development Project in Assam and Tripura under
PM-DevINE and the Agarwood International Trade and Research Centre in
Agartala under Schemes of NEC.
v.
Greater market
linkages with FPOs and cluster-based organisations are envisaged to
provide assured demand and improve opportunities for growers.
Source: PIB- https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2297732®=48&lang=1