Agarwood's sweet smell of success

For generations, fragrant agarwood has been associated with collectors, temples and scholars — and while ordinary consumers know its name, they seldom get to experience it.

Today, advances in cultivation, scientific research and product development are transforming the resin-rich wood into the foundation of a growing industry.

Across Hainan province, researchers, growers and entrepreneurs are betting that its fragrance, once associated with privilege, and its other products, can find a place in ordinary homes.

The Nada Agarwood Research Institute based in Hainan is taking a novel approach to marketing an agarwood resin they developed. The company has drawn inspiration from the empress's residence in Weiyang Palace in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi province) during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24).

Known as Jiaofang Hall, or Pepper Hall, the palace's walls were covered in a plaster mixture of pepper and clay that filled the residence with a warm, pungent aroma — a symbol of refinement, status and fortune in that era.

At an agarwood exhibition in Beijing's Gongmei Building from March to May, the research institute featured a burning coil of incense that releases agarwood fragrance.

"The inspiration came from the Jiaofang Hall. But we replaced pepper with agarwood," said Yan Bin, founder and chairman of the company, which has spent two decades focusing on agarwood cultivation, research and product development.

"What we want to carry forward is the old Chinese idea of bringing fragrance into living spaces," Yan said.

Behind such ambition is a rapidly expanding market.

According to a 2024 report by Zhiyan Consulting, China's agarwood market size had grown to about 55 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) by 2023. Under an agarwood whole industry chain development plan (2023–30) by the Hainan government, the province aims to reach an annual output value of over 5 billion yuan by 2030.