As a result of the decline in wild populations of agarwood-producing trees, exporting countries
are increasingly turning to plantations as a way to maintain their export business and income. However, while plantations may have been successful in terms of cultivation, the agarwood they produce is widely considered to be of lower quality that its wild- sourced equivalent.
Some analyses have found significant differences in the concentrations of oils and aromatic compounds between plantation and wild agarwood samples (Tamuli et al. 2005; Espinosa et al. 2014). A possible explanation may be the rapid turnover of plantation agarwood. Plantation trees are harvested as soon as two years after infection, providing limited time for aromatic compounds to accumulate, whereas wild trees may have grown for decades before they are harvested (Mustafa et al. 2022; As a result, some farmers and investors may be hesitant to invest in agarwood cultivation. However, research to improve the quality of plantation products is ongoing, and the quality of plantation agarwood has somewhat improved over time.