Tripura’s agarwood economy to touch Rs 2,000 Cr with policy push: Scindia
The DoNER minister said the agarwood economy could grow to Rs 2,000 crore annually, citing higher export caps, and a new Rs 80-crore cluster project
Jyotiraditya Scindia interacting with workers from the agarwood industry in Tripura (Photo - @JM_Scindia/ X)
Agartala, Jan 25: Union Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia today said that Tripura’s agarwood-based economy is expected to grow to nearly Rs 2,000 crore annually in the coming years, backed by strong policy support and improved infrastructure.
At present, the annual turnover of the agarwood trade in the State stands at around Rs 100 crore.
Scindia was speaking at a function after laying the foundation stone for a Rs 80-crore agarwood cluster development project at Fulbari in North Tripura district. He said the DoNER Ministry has been working systematically to remove long-standing bottlenecks that have constrained the growth of the agarwood sector.
One of the major bottlenecks – the cap on exports of agarwood products – has now been addressed in a practical manner, the minister said. The export limit for agarwood chips from Tripura has been increased from 25,000 units to 1.5 lakh units, while the cap on agarwood oil exports has been raised from 1,500 kg to 75,000 kg.
“These steps have effectively dismantled two major barriers to the expansion of the agarwood trade,” Scindia added.
The minister further informed that the DoNER Ministry is moving towards digitising the approval process for exporting agarwood-based products. “At present, traders require multiple clearances. We are working to simplify and streamline the entire system through digitalisation,” he said.
Scindia also assured traders that they would soon be permitted to carry agarwood product samples while travelling abroad to showcase them to potential buyers – something currently restricted under existing customs regulations.
Emphasising the importance of quality assurance and branding, the minister said efforts are under way to obtain Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification and Geographical Indication (GI) tags for agarwood-based products to enhance their visibility and credibility in global markets.
Stating that he has closely studied the agarwood trade cycle over the past one-and-a-half years, Scindia said he had come to Tripura as an emissary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a message of growth and development.
The minister also revealed that he held discussions with Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Friday regarding the future road map of the agarwood sector. “We highlighted the need to plant 25 lakh agarwood trees across Tripura over the next two to three years to ensure uninterrupted availability of raw materials,” he said.
Currently, Tripura has around 1.5 lakh agarwood trees, most of which are concentrated in North Tripura and Unakoti districts.