Gaharu
Gaharu is the Malay and Indonesian word for agarwood, used across Indonesia and Malaysia for both the wood and the oil. In the Indonesian trade it frequently carries an additional sense of a particular type or quality of wood rather than the category as a whole, which is why the term needs the rest of the description to be understood.
What it refers to
The word is used for the resinous wood of Aquilaria species and for the oil distilled from it. Indonesian usage also distinguishes between types by name โ the higher-priced West Kalimantan material is referred to by particular names that are widely discussed in the domestic trade.
The precise attribution of this term varies between markets, suppliers and periods, and a seller may use it more loosely than the strict usage. Where the distinction matters to a purchase, confirm the meaning with the counterparty rather than relying on the label.
What it does not prove
The word does not establish the species, the region within Indonesia, the resin content or the quality of a particular lot. Regional names within the country are not interchangeable, and the domestic names are not an international standard.
This entry gives the general trade referent of the term. It does not establish the specific grading, composition or origin of any material described with it, and it is not a standard.
- Biodiversity and application prospects of fungal endophytes in the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops (Thymelaeaceae): a reviewStates that all members of the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops are placed in CITES Appendix II. Records 92 compounds identified in agarwood, of which terpenoids are 40.22%, and names eighteen fungal genera reported to promote agarwood formation. It does not establish the quality, yield or age of any material, and it is a review rather than a regulatory instrument.
- Agarwood: A reviewStates that CITES Appendix II covers all species of Aquilaria and Gyrinops, and reports fifteen Aquilaria species distributed across the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, from Pakistan and India through southern China into Southeast Asia. It does not establish the legal status of any individual shipment in any particular jurisdiction.
- ITTO โ CITES COP examines agarwoodEstablishes that all species of Aquilaria and Gyrinops have been listed in CITES Appendix II since 2004, and that the listing followed unsustainable extraction. Establishes that the report reviews wild and planted agarwood resources, processing technologies, products and regulatory practices, and that cultivation and inoculation of agarwood species are described as relieving pressure on wild populations in natural forests. It does not state what an Appendix II listing requires for trade, and it does not establish the origin, age or quality of any material.
- Expensive, Exploited and Endangered โ a review of the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and GyrinopsTable 1 lists the accepted Aquilaria and Gyrinops species with their IUCN Red List status and their range states, drawn from the IUCN Red List, the cited 2021 and 2022 species assessments, and the Kew Plants of the World Online checklist. The summary establishes that all members of both genera (at least 28 species) are in CITES Appendix II, that A. malaccensis was listed in 1995 and the other species were added in 2005, that the major Aquilaria exporters are Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, that more than 98% of the material exported from Malaysia and Indonesia is wild stock while the wood from Thailand is all plantation origin, that the main Gyrinops exporters are Indonesia (including Papua) and Sri Lanka, that plantation agarwood is reported to be of inferior quality and worth less than wild material, and that the global industry has been estimated at more than USD 30 billion with a litre of oil at USD 40,000-50,000. It also records the grading systems in use (Malaysia twelve grades, Indonesia nine, a separate Chinese guide), that the industry still lacks a global grading standard based on quantifiable indicators, and that the taxonomy of the two genera is not settled and requires reassessment. It does not establish the quality or grade of any individual lot, does not establish the price of any particular material, and does not establish that material from a given range state was produced there rather than traded through it.
- Sustainable management of Papua New Guinea's agarwood resourceA study of the agarwood (gaharu) resource in Papua New Guinea, covering the harvesting and trade in the country, the species recorded, the scale of the export trade, and the management proposals that followed. It establishes that the country was one of the major exporters of agarwood in international trade, that the material was recorded under the name Aquilaria malaccensis in trade even where the producing species were Gyrinops, and that the principal market for the material was the Middle East. It documents the harvest and trading arrangements and the pressure on the resource. It is a study of a national situation at a particular time and does not establish the current export position, the current species composition, or the legal status of any present-day shipment.
OudGuide editorial review ยท 2026-10-20
Reviewed against the cited sources and checked for a question-specific answer. Trade attributions were checked against the general trade usage rather than against a single market, and each entry states which parts are local rather than general.