Jinko
Jinko is the word used in Japanese and Chinese trade for agarwood, and the surrounding systems of grading โ the numbered categories that appear in Japanese auction terminology in particular โ are long established in that market. Those categories are a domestic trade convention and do not correspond to the Gulf "Super" series or to any published international standard.
What it refers to
Japanese buyers of incense and wood have used graded categories for a long time, and the terminology is embedded in auction and trade documentation. The categories describe the material as the local market describes it. A buyer in that market reads them as such; a buyer outside it should treat them as local labels rather than as a specification.
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
A category number does not establish resin content, oil yield, age, or the species of a given piece, and it carries no meaning outside the market that uses it.
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.
- FAOLEX โ the FAO legal and policy databaseFull-text legislative and policy documents relating to food, agriculture, forestry and trade from FAO member states. It establishes the published text of a national instrument. It does not establish how an instrument is enforced in practice.
- 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.
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.