Leading Exporters

Most Aquilaria is exported from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, with Singapore a significant re-exporter. Recent export patterns have been similar for Malaysia and Indonesia, with the amount produced by Indonesia rising significantly after 2008, and then falling again after 2013. The exceptionally high figure for Malaysia in 2017 may be due to a reporting error (such as the use of m3 instead of kg to measure a shipment). The data for Thailand indicate little agarwood was exported prior to 2011, followed by a large increase to a more or less consistent level after 2013.

The rise in exports from Thailand corresponds to the increasing maturity of its relatively young plantations. Cambodia, on the other hand, exported a total of more than 315 000 kg of wild agarwood between 1993¬ and 1998, and then nothing for a decade until small amounts were recorded again starting in 2008. An exception was 2016, when 200 000 kg was exported (Sinly et al. 2022). The same study suggests that some agarwood has been exported from Cambodia without permits.

The trade in Gyrinops agarwood is considerably smaller than that in Aquilaria agarwood (492 778 kg of Gyrinops vs. 19 681 624 kg of Aquilaria from all source countries between 2000 and 2020). The main Gyrinops agarwood exporters are Indonesia, Papua, Malaysia (re-export13), and Sri Lanka. All countries export Gyrinops agarwood primarily as chips. The major producers of agarwood oil from Gyrinops species are Singapore and Sri Lanka.