Dianbai Uses Cluster Development to Upgrade the Whole Agarwood Chain; 2025 Output Value Passes RMB 8 Billion

From single-point growth to cluster coordination

Dianbai district in Maoming has made its "Hundred-Mile Agarwood Belt" township cluster a core vehicle for Guangdong's high-quality development programme. Building on more than 1,500 years of agarwood heritage and cutting across administrative boundaries, it is shifting the sector from single-point growth to coordinated cluster-wide development. According to Maoming Daily, full-chain output value exceeded RMB 8 billion in 2025, with per-capita disposable income for agarwood farmers running 30% above the local average.

Planted area has now passed 160,000 mu, with more than 12,000 operating entities and over 100,000 people employed. The district has completed a cluster development plan positioned around a "World Incense Capital Town", using National Highway G325 to link the two model towns of Guanzhu and Shalang with nine administrative villages, forming a "one core, two wings, multiple nodes" structure. A construction headquarters led by the district party secretary oversees nine specialist working groups.

Standards, projects and Middle East exports

On governance, Dianbai has implemented 5 local standards, 14 group standards and 30 enterprise standards, and runs a "trustworthy consumption" accreditation scheme that has recognised 45 quality operators across two rounds. At the germplasm end, three new qinan agarwood varieties are under selection with two provincial-level improved varieties submitted, and annual seedling output exceeds 30 million plants. On processing, the Dianbai Agarwood Group's innovation centre has come on stream with projected annual output of 2 million beads and 500 kg of essential oil.

On distribution and exports, phase one of the Shadong Agarwood Centre is operating and the provincial modern agriculture park hosts over 1,000 merchants. Leading firms such as Junyuan Agarwood generate more than RMB 50 million a year through livestream commerce and have shipped 13 batches of raw agarwood totalling 4.1 tonnes to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE. On tourism, the district is stitching together the Shadong centre, the Nanyue Agarwood Museum and the Zhongliang AAA scenic area into an agarwood cultural corridor; the Senhai Agarwood Commune alone receives over 2 million visitor trips a year and has brought 2,500-plus households into cultivation.

This article is industry observation and general information, not trading or investment advice. Please buy agarwood only through legal channels and look for traceable, testable sources.