Bringing incense far and wide

Start a business from passion

Present at Ms. Ai's production workshop, amidst the vast agarwood, the fragrant scent of agarwood wafted in the air, the sound of chisels, chisels, and grinding echoed as dozens of workers skillfully took care of each single, rough piece of agarwood into beautiful, fragrant products. In her conversation with us, Ms. Ai shared that she had a passion for agarwood, so since 2005, she started working and trading in agarwood with a small production workshop. By 2019, realizing that the craft of crafting agarwood into jewelry and ornamental agarwood products was sought after by the market, she decided to establish Xuong Moc Viet Joint Stock Company with herself as director to expand production of more high-end products, such as: agarwood bracelets, bonsai agarwood, natural agarwood blanks, agarwood incense, agarwood essential oil...

To differentiate the agarwood of Xuong Moc Viet, Ms. Ai takes the raw materials from two sources. In particular, Aquilaria trees exploited from natural forests will be used to make jewelry and decorative products; Aquilaria trees from concentrated growing areas will be used to make agarwood incense, burning products, and agarwood essential oils.

According to Ms. Ai, agarwood is the part of the wood of the Aquilaria tree that contains aromatic resin, which is considered the "spiritual energy of heaven and earth". In nature, agarwood often accumulates into thin black layers in places where the Aquilaria tree is damaged by fungi, ants, worms, broken branches or by foresters affecting the roots and trunks of the trees. "The company's advantage is that it has an abundant source of Aquilaria wood, exploited and purchased from natural forests and from Aquilaria growing areas in and outside the province. We also commit to using only pure agarwood, absolutely no chemicals or additives in the product", Ms. Ai affirmed.

Ms. Ai livestreams to promote and sell products on social networking sites such as Facebook and Tiktok - Photo: LA

Ms. Ai said that according to folk beliefs, agarwood products will ward off evil spirits, bring health, luck, and fortune to the user. According to medicine, agarwood has the effect of preventing strokes, reducing stress, reducing fatigue, and helping the body increase resistance to infectious diseases thanks to the natural scent of agarwood. From the fragrant agarwood trunks that are exploited, depending on the quality of the agarwood, they are classified for appropriate processing. Some types are used to make agarwood incense, agarwood cones; some are used to make bracelets, beads; and agarwood trunks and raw agarwood pieces with beautiful shapes are used to make agarwood landscapes, agarwood bonsai, and art miniature agarwood...

In particular, in addition to direct sales and distribution to agents and stores in and outside the province, Ms. Ai also takes advantage of digital platforms to promote and sell products on e-commerce platforms and on social networking sites such as Facebook and TikTok. This is also the main sales channel to consume the company's products.

“On average, the company sells about 2 tons of incense, cones, and cloud-shaped incense to the market each month. Products such as feng shui bracelets and jewelry bracelets made from agarwood are also often in a state of “out of stock”. Estimated revenue from agarwood is about 1.3-1.4 billion VND/month, after deducting costs, the profit is about 30%. At the same time, it creates regular jobs for 25 direct workers and dozens of seasonal workers,” said Ms. Ai.

Aiming at the international market

Currently, after nearly 6 years in the market, Ms. Ai has dozens of products made from agarwood, such as: Agarwood bracelets; pure agarwood incense; agarwood blanks, agarwood landscapes, art miniature agarwood; gift and feng shui products. All are meticulously and delicately crafted, bearing the mark of Vietnamese culture.

Ms. Ai cited that to get the characteristic agarwood hidden inside, the craftsman must carefully chisel the outer shell, then meticulously carve and scrape the white wood, revealing the various agarwood veins. The closer to the agarwood veins, the gentler the craftsman must be, so as not to damage the agarwood. When encountering large pieces of agarwood with complex agarwood veins, he must meticulously use a small hook to scrape each bit of wood to create a beautiful agarwood piece, worth tens to hundreds of millions of dong. In addition, the chiseled and scraped pieces are all used to make agarwood incense and agarwood essential oil.

Agarwood products of "Xuong Moc Viet" are meticulously and delicately crafted, bearing the mark of Vietnamese culture - Photo: LA

Ms. Ai informed that currently, in addition to the production facility in Quang Tri, she has also opened 2 more facilities in Gia Lai province and Ho Chi Minh City; a product showroom in Ho Chi Minh City and is currently preparing to put into operation another showroom in Da Nang City. The company's pure agarwood incense products have also been certified as 3-star OCOP products at the provincial level in 2023; and certified as typical rural industrial products at the provincial level in 2024. The company has achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification. These are clear signs affirming the company's outstanding product quality.

Sharing about the development direction in the coming time, Ms. Ai affirmed that from now until 2030, Xuong Moc Viet sets the goal of expanding production scale, expanding the distribution system nationwide and aiming to bring the company's agarwood products to the international market. Thereby, contributing to building Quang Tri into a center for production and development of high-quality handicrafts in the Central region. "To achieve the above goal, in addition to always listening to consumers' opinions, regularly participating in conferences, exhibitions, and fairs in and outside the province, the company also proactively improves designs, invests in installing modern equipment and machinery associated with product diversification to bring to the market the best agarwood products at reasonable prices to bring the products closer to customers", Ms. Ai shared.

Le An

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/kinh-te/202511/dua-huong-tram-vuon-xa-5036cd4/