The Centre has introduced a series of measures to encourage legal and sustainable agarwood cultivation, value addition and exports from Tripura and other northeastern states, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh informed Parliament.
Replying to a question from Tripura East MP Kriti Devi Debbarman, the minister said agarwood offered considerable scope for creating rural employment, increasing exports and delivering ecological benefits.
For Tripura, the government has set an annual export quota of 22,500 kg of plantation-grown agarwood chips, powder and sawdust, besides 1,047 kg of agarwood oil, for the financial years 2024-25 to 2026-27. The quotas were determined based on recommendations from the 2024 Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) Study, which assessed the availability of cultivated agarwood for sustainable exports.
Promotion of agarwood through agroforestry systems has also been included among the announcements made in the Union Budget 2026-27. The minister said requests from the Tripura government and other stakeholders for simpler procedures covering the transit, certification and export of cultivated agarwood and value-added products had been examined through consultations involving ministries, state governments, exporters and industry associations.
To improve ease of doing business, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), in consultation with the Environment Ministry, has developed a dedicated Certificate of Origin module for agarwood on the Trade Connect ePlatform. The digital facility enables exporters to submit information on the origin of the produce, stock, chain of custody and inspection records, helping improve transparency and traceability.
The government is also supporting scientific inoculation of agarwood trees. The Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI) in Jorhat is providing technical assistance to growers to help protect them from exploitation by unregulated service providers.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) is supporting sustainable agarwood cultivation and value addition through projects under the PM-DevINE Scheme. These include the Agarwood Cluster Development Project being implemented by NERAMAC.
The measures are aimed at strengthening agarwood cultivation as a sustainable source of livelihood while facilitating legal, transparent and sustainable exports of agarwood and its value-added products from Tripura and the wider Northeast.
