Despite the market potential, Cai saw that many villagers did not understand the value of agarwood. Many trees were cut down because farmers wanted to plant rubber — a supported crop that provided a steady income. Discarded agarwood was often treated as firewood. "I bought some of it for only a few cents per kilogram," Cai said.
His fortunes changed in 2006, when he visited an elderly villager who had found an old tree stump in a rubber plantation. The stump had been placed inside a house.
"The fragrance filled the room the moment I walked in," Cai recalled.
He recognized its value and bought it for 3,000 yuan. After processing, he sold it for 600,000 yuan. The piece later appeared at an auction in Hong Kong and was sold for 2.8 million yuan. The buyer gave him an extra 100,000 yuan.
"My whole family was extremely happy. We never expected this much money," Cai said.
In 2013, Hainan asked Cai to represent the agarwood industry at an international exhibition in Beijing, where he demonstrated traditional processing techniques. "The things I brought were sold out in half a day," he said. On the first day of the exhibition, his handmade agarwood bracelets sold for 460,000 yuan.
Returning from Beijing, Cai decided his village should plant agarwood. The following year, he helped establish an agarwood planting cooperative. Villagers provided land, and the cooperative provided investment, technology and sales channels. Profits were shared. Dozens of households now participate in agarwood cultivation and processing. The cooperative produces incense, bracelets, essential oils, tea and other related products.
Despite the industry's rapid growth, Cai has stuck with the traditional method of creating the resin.
"It takes hard manual work — using saws, electric drills and controlled burning — to imitate the natural forces that wound the trees so they can produce the fragrant resin," he said.
He is skeptical of attempts to accelerate production through chemicals. "Those methods may be faster, but they compromise the quality. Good agarwood needs time."
