Oud, the resin formed when Aquilaria trees are wounded and infected, has shifted from a Gulf and Asian niche to a global fixation, driving over 20 percent annual growth in its fragrance sub-segment. Scarce, labour-intensive and CITES-regulated, it commands prices up to Rs. 10 lakh per kilogram, with India’s Assam plantations and luxury houses anchoring its rise in modern, softer compositions.
A healthy Aquilaria tree is, on its own, worthless to a perfumer. Its wood carries no scent at all until the tree is wounded, either naturally or through deliberate inoculation, and a specific mould infection sets in, triggering the tree to flood the injury with a dark, resinous defence mechanism over years. That resin is oud, also known as agarwood, and in its rarest grades it is the single most expensive raw material in the fragrance industry, oil fetching upward of Rs. 3 lakh a kilogram, with the finest agarwood chips going for as much as Rs. 10 lakh a kilogram in the Indian market alone. What was, for centuries, a niche obsession largely confined to the Gulf and parts of Asia has, over the past two years, become one of the defining notes in global perfumery, and the shift shows up clearly in the numbers.
The oud sub-segment of the fragrance market is growing more than 20 percent year-on-year, according to 2026 industry tracking, making oud-forward compositions the structural growth driver behind the entire oriental and amber fragrance family globally. Maison Francis Kurkdjian's 2024 limited-edition oud wood collection sold through 85 percent of its stock within 30 days of release. On social media, "oud perfume" has become one of the most common entry points into fragrance discovery for younger buyers, alongside note-led searches like "oud and amber perfume" and "sandalwood and musk fragrance," a meaningful shift from a decade ago, when most people found a new scent through a brand name rather than an ingredient. Gen Z consumers, who now maintain fragrance wardrobes of eight to twelve bottles rather than a single signature scent, have pushed particularly hard toward what the industry calls oud-under-fruit compositions: real complexity, oud's dense, smoky base layered under something brighter, at a price point below the ultra-niche houses that made oud famous in the West in the first place.
Only 7 to 10 percent of wild Aquilaria trees ever become naturally infected enough to produce usable agarwood, which is precisely why indiscriminate felling in search of infected trees caused an estimated 80 percent decline in wild Aquilaria populations over roughly the last 150 years, and why the genus was listed under Appendix II of CITES, the convention regulating international trade in endangered species. That scarcity is the entire economic story: a raw material that takes a tree years to produce, that can't be reliably predicted or forced without artificial inoculation, and that has to be harvested, distilled or chipped by hand. Grade and origin move the price dramatically. Cultivated agarwood from licensed plantations, as opposed to wild-harvested wood, is legally tradeable under current CITES rules, which has allowed countries with agarwood industries to build a legitimate commercial supply chain without touching what's left of the wild population.
Assam is widely known as India's agarwood capital, home to Aquilaria malaccensis plantations across Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, an industry that has grown into commercial-scale cultivation over the past two decades specifically because of Gulf and Southeast Asian demand. Indian agarwood chips currently trade anywhere from roughly Rs. 1.2 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh per kilogram for medium grades, climbing past Rs. 10 lakh per kilogram for the highest grades, while pure agarwood oil, oud oil in perfumery terms, sells for Rs. 70,000 to over Rs. 3 lakh per kilogram depending on quality. Tripura has separately set a target of building a Rs. 2,000 crore agarwood industry of its own. Farmers cultivating Aquilaria on private land must maintain cultivation records and secure a CITES certificate of origin before any export, a system built specifically to keep India's growing plantation supply distinct from, and legally cleaner than, wild-harvested wood from elsewhere in the region.
For the ultra-premium fragrance segment, currently dominated by Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Creed, Xerjoff and Amouage, oud perfumes have become close to a required house note. Creed's Royal Oud variant was built with enhanced longevity specifically for Middle Eastern buyers, in a region where oud-based perfumes now account for over 45 percent of premium fragrance sales. What's changed more recently is the style of oud itself: perfumers increasingly favour what the industry calls a retake on classical oud, a lighter, more refined register that keeps oud's density and smoke while dialling back the heavier, more animalic facets that once made it a genuinely polarising note for anyone outside the Gulf market. That single shift, oud made palatable to a much broader global palate without losing what made it distinctive, is arguably the real reason it moved from a regional specialty to a global obsession inside the span of about two years.
What does oud perfumes smell like?
Oud perfumes carries a deep, smoky, woody profile, often described as resinous and slightly sweet, with animalic undertones in its more traditional, unrefined forms. Contemporary oud compositions tend to soften those animalic notes and pair the wood with fruit, florals or amber to make it more broadly wearable.
Is oud the same as agarwood?
Yes. Agarwood is the resinous wood itself, harvested from infected Aquilaria trees, while oud typically refers to the oil or fragrance extracted from that wood, though the terms are often used interchangeably in perfumery.
Where does the best oud come from?
Historically, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, particularly Assam in Northeast India, along with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, have produced some of the most prized agarwood. Wild-harvested oud from these regions is increasingly rare and regulated, which has pushed much of the current supply toward licensed, cultivated plantations.
Is oud perfume sustainable?
It can be, provided it's sourced from cultivated plantations rather than wild-harvested trees. Aquilaria is listed under CITES Appendix II specifically because of the decline in wild populations from indiscriminate harvesting, but cultivated agarwood from licensed farms, sold with a CITES certificate of origin, is considered a legitimate and more sustainable source.