National Agarwood Standard Revision Advances, Grading and Testing in Focus

Revision of the national standards for agarwood products is advancing, with consultations running in parallel. Participants point to three focal areas.

Three focal points

• Grading: replacing purely empirical judgement with objective indicators, curbing misuse of terms like "sinking" and "kyara".
• Testing: reproducible, cross-lab methods for oil content, chromones and sesquiterpenes.
• International alignment: dovetailing with CITES and major import markets.

What it means

Once published, the standard gives testing and e-commerce disclosure a more unified basis, though it is a floor, not a ceiling. Buyers should keep receipts and support re-testing.