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Assam marked a important milestone successful its agro-forest system with the archetypal legally approved export of agarwood chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), opening a caller section for an manufacture with immense planetary request and beardown gross potential.
The consignment, comprising 100 kg of agarwood chips to Saudi Arabia and 12 kg to the UAE, was dispatched from the cargo terminal of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport connected Wednesday (May 13, 2026). The shipment was valued astatine ₹2.35 crore.
The consignment was exported aft securing each statutory clearances, including a CITES (Convention connected International Trade successful Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) licence and a restricted export licence from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.
Jehirul Islam, the president of the All Assam Agarwood Planters and Traders’ Association and the founder-chairman of the MJI Group, flagged disconnected the shipment.
“This accomplishment is the effect of years of research, argumentation advocacy, husbandman engagement, plantation development, processing innovation and planetary compliance efforts,” helium said.
Premium product
Agarwood, besides known arsenic oud, is 1 of the world’s astir invaluable aromatic earthy materials and is wide utilized successful luxury perfumes, incense, cosmetics and accepted products crossed the Gulf, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Assam-grown agarwood is highly valued for its superior quality, affluent aroma and precocious lipid content, giving the authorities a beardown vantage successful planetary markets.
Industry stakeholders judge organised exports tin make important opportunities for farmers, nursery owners, distillation units, traders, and tiny enterprises crossed Assam and the wider Northeast.
Dr. Islam thanked Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for supporting the implementation of the Assam Agarwood Promotion Policy, 2020. The argumentation was introduced to legalise and modulate the cultivation, processing, and export of agarwood, portion creating a transparent and farmer-friendly ecosystem.
Curbing amerciable trade
According to Dr. Islam, the argumentation model volition assistance curb the amerciable question of agarwood, which, for years deprived section growers and entrepreneurs of just returns.
He said regulated exports would alteration producers successful Assam to straight entree planetary buyers alternatively of depending connected informal channels and intermediaries.
Dr. Islam further said that the agarwood manufacture has the imaginable to make gross of ₹50,000 crore for Assam if cultivation, processing, and exports are scaled up successful an organised manner.
He said the assemblage could look arsenic 1 of the State’s starring overseas speech earners, driven by rising planetary request for agarwood chips, oud oil, perfumes, and different value-added aromatic products.
