Agarwood Tree Price: What Really Sets the Value of an Aquilaria Tree

An agarwood tree price is set by the resinated wood a buyer expects to recover from it, minus the cost and risk of getting that wood out. Trunk size, age, induction history and species all matter, but only because they predict resin.

Scarcity starts in the forest. According to a 2013 study in Molecules (Liu 2013), agarwood forms naturally in only about 10% of Aquilaria trees, which is why plantations now induce resin on purpose.^[4]

That is the key difference between a tree and almost any other timber. A eucalyptus or pine is valued by volume. An Aquilaria tree, however, is valued by a small fraction of its wood that has turned dark and aromatic, and that fraction can be large, small or close to zero.

So when someone quotes a single number per tree, ask what assumption sits behind it. In practice, every per-tree figure is an estimate of hidden resin, and the estimate is only as good as the evidence offered for it.

A Tree Is Not Yet Oud

Healthy Aquilaria wood is pale, light and nearly odourless. Oud forms only where the tree has been wounded and infected, and the tree fills that damaged tissue with resin as a defence response.^[1]

Therefore an old, tall, handsome tree can hold almost nothing of value. Wild collectors learned this the hard way: historically they felled many trees to find the few that had formed resin naturally.

Plantations changed the odds by wounding trees on purpose. Even so, induction raises the probability of resin rather than guaranteeing a set amount. Our guide to how cultivated agarwood trees mature covers the growing side, so here we stay with value.

Inoculation is the point where a tree starts to become a commodity. Before it, the agarwood tree price reflects timber and potential; after it, the price begins to reflect resin that is actually forming.

Researchers describe a range of induction approaches, from physical wounding to chemical and biological inoculants.^[2] Across Asia, the move from chance formation to deliberate induction is what made plantation agarwood possible at scale.^[3]

At our plantation in Guan Zhu Town, Dian Bai, we use artificial inoculation on our own 100+ mu of Aquilaria sinensis. However, inoculation is a start, not a result. A buyer still has to judge how long the resin has had to build and how well it has spread.

Time Since Induction

Resin accumulates slowly around each wound. As a general rule, a tree harvested soon after induction yields lighter material, while a longer formation period tends to give darker, heavier wood.

That is why a credible tree offer always states when the tree was inoculated. Without a date, a buyer cannot separate a freshly drilled tree from one that has been forming resin for years. Both may look similar from outside.

Still, longer is not automatically better for every buyer. Lighter, early-harvest wood suits distillation and incense, whereas carvers and collectors want dense pieces. Consequently, the right harvest timing depends on the end product.

Why the Induction Method Matters

Simple drilling creates resin in rings around each hole, with pale wood between them. Methods that spread an inducer through the conducting tissue can produce resin across a larger part of the trunk.

For example, a study on cultivated Aquilaria sinensis described a whole-tree inducing technique that distributed resin formation through much of the stem.^[4] Published results like this show what is possible under trial conditions; they are not a promise for any particular tree.

For a buyer, the practical point is simple. Ask which method was used, then ask to see cut sections from trees treated the same way. A cross-section tells you more than any description.

Agarwood tree price quotes vary because each seller is pricing a different bundle of facts, assumptions and risks. Two trees of the same age can differ several-fold in recoverable resin, and two quotes for the same tree can rest on different harvest plans.

Moreover, the trade has no public reference price for standing trees. Chips, oil and logs are bought and sold often enough that buyers can compare offers. Standing trees, by contrast, are traded privately, one deal at a time.

This is also why we do not publish a per-tree figure. Any number we printed here would mislead more readers than it helped, because the variation between trees is larger than the variation between price lists.

What a Tree Quote Actually Includes

Before you compare two quotes, check that they describe the same thing. In practice, a tree quote may cover any of these arrangements:

• Uninduced trees: plants or young trees sold for the buyer to grow and inoculate later.
• Induced standing trees: trees already inoculated, sold in place, with the buyer responsible for harvest timing.
• Felled trunks: whole trunks or large sections, sold before the pale wood is removed.
• Cleaned logs: sections with most unresinated wood carved away, sold by the piece.

Each step down this list removes some uncertainty and adds some labour. Therefore the price rises along the chain, while the risk to the buyer falls.

The Costs Between Tree and Saleable Wood

A tree only becomes money after a long list of work. Felling, sectioning, hand-carving away the pale wood, drying, sorting and grading all take skilled time, and much of the trunk's weight ends up as low-value offcuts.

Grading then splits the recovered wood into tiers. Published reviews show that agarwood quality assessment combines visual, aroma, density and chemical criteria, and that systems differ between markets.^[5] On our own grading table, the same tree usually produces pieces across several of our D, C, B, A and AAA grades.

Finally, export adds paperwork. Every Aquilaria species has been listed in CITES Appendix II since 2004, so wood and many products leaving China need permits.^[6] A buyer who purchases trees must plan for that pathway, whereas a buyer of finished material can let the supplier handle it.

Oud Tree Price per Kg: Why the Unit Matters

Many listings quote an oud tree price per kg, but per kg of what? Whole trunk, cleaned resinated wood and graded chips can differ by many times in value. On our side, we never sell standing trees by weight. We sell what the grading table shows: logs from $88 per piece and D–AAA chips from $0.24/g, with a 100 g MOQ.

So when you compare a quote, ask what the kilogram contains. If the answer is "the whole tree", most of it is pale wood worth little more than timber.

For most buyers, the question is not really "what does a tree cost?" but "which stage of the chain should I buy at?" The answer depends on your capacity to handle risk and labour.

If you want to grow, start with plants. Our Aquilaria sinensis seedlings are listed at $15 per plant with a minimum of 10, and they travel with a phytosanitary certificate. However, a seedling is a long-term project, so budget for land, care, induction and years of waiting.

If you want wood you can inspect, logs are the closest thing to buying part of a tree without the guesswork. Our resinated agarwood log pieces start from $88 per piece, and price rises with size, density and resin coverage.

If you make or sell finished goods, buy graded material. Our graded oud wood chips start from $0.24/g at entry grade, with a 100 g minimum. For how those prices compare across wild and cultivated stock, see our per-kilogram price breakdown for wild vs cultivated agarwood.

Regional demand shapes these choices too. Gulf bakhoor retailers usually want chips, whereas carvers and collectors in Greater China tend to look at logs. Meanwhile Japanese incense makers and perfumers mostly care about grade and scent profile, not about trees at all.

Agarwood trees are sometimes marketed as investments, with fixed returns per tree after a set number of years. Treat those pitches with real caution, because nobody can see the resin before harvest.

• Guaranteed yields: resin formation varies with tree health, method, climate and time. A promised kilogram figure per tree is an assumption, not a fact.
• Prices based on top grades: some projections value all recovered wood at high-grade or Kynam-level prices. Real harvests split across several grades, and much of the trunk becomes offcuts.
• No exit plan: ask who will fell, clean, grade and sell the wood, and at what cost. A tree you cannot process or export is hard to turn into money.
• Missing paperwork: without plantation source records, the CITES pathway becomes difficult. Check the current annotation text and your own country's import rules before you commit.

We are growers and processors, not an investment scheme. We sell seedlings, logs, chips, oil and incense at listed prices, and we make no promises about future tree values or returns.

Wild Trees, Poaching and Planting Rules

Wild agarwood trees are under heavy pressure. Poachers often fell or wound trees in search of resin, and several Aquilaria species are now assessed as threatened. That is the main reason every species is listed in CITES Appendix II.

Rules on planting and harvesting differ by country, and they decide what a standing tree is legally worth. In the Philippines, for example, the environment department allowed commercial propagation of agarwood in 2021.^[7] The same logic applies to an aquilaria tree price anywhere: check that you can legally harvest and sell the wood before you pay for the tree.