India's exports of agarbattis (incense sticks) increased by 21.68% in 2005-06, with the US remaining the largest market. ITC has partnered with small and medium enterprises to improve quality and productivity of agarbatti manufacturing. ITC sources from various small producers and supports community programs to train women in agarbatti production.

1. Market Survey
BY: G.P. GANDHI
INDIAN AGARBATTIS
IN FOREIGN LANDS
India’s exports of agarbattis in 2005-06 shot up steeply by
21.68 per cent. USA continues to be the largest market.
Agarbattis,’ also known as
‘incense sticks,’ are made
from aromatic plants and
essential oils extracted
from plants or animal
sources. When lightened, these re-lease
a fragrant smoke which finds
use in the religious activities,
prayers, and therapeutic and aes-thetic
purposes. Agarbattis have been
used since times immemorial as an
integral part of Hindu deity worship
in India.
There are about 10,000 agarbatti
manufacturing units in the country
including tiny, small and medium,
besides another 200 well-established
ones having over 50 branded
agarbattis. Nearly 12 lakh people are
directly or indirectly employed by
the industry.
India is exporting a wide range of
agarbattis or incense sticks that have
natural, exotic fragrances extracted
from jasmine, sandalwood (chandan)
and rose. These fragrances spread
the ambience and tranquility. The
incense sticks are packaged attrac-tively.
The agarbatti industry depends
heavily on forest products for raw
materials—a natural advantage since
nature has bestowed upon it vast
expense of forests.
Capexcil (formerly known as Ba-sic
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and
Cosmetics Export Promotion Coun-cil),
functioning under the aegis of
Ministry of Commerce and industry,
government of India, over the years
has been playing an important role
in promoting exports of agarbattis
from the country.
Besides, ITC’s incense sticks busi-ness
launched as part of its strategic
initiative to create multiple drivers
of growth in fast moving consumer
goods sector (FMCG) leverages the
core strengths of the company in
marketing and distribution, brand
building, supply chain management
and paperboard and packaging to of-fer
Indian consumers high-quality
agarbattis.
The company marketing
agarbattis under the ‘Mangaldeep’
brand through 5 lakh retail outlets
in the country has doubled volumes
from 50 million sticks per month to
100 million sticks now. It continues
to upgrade the manufacture of
agarbattis by villagers and small-scale
manufacturers. The company
now sources all its requirements
though tie-ups with Sankranti,
Ananth and Jyanti Domestic Prod-ucts
(all from Bangalore), Cottage
industry of Aurobindu Ashram
(Pondicherry), Prayer Dhoop
Agarbatti (New Delhi), Swastik In-dustries
(Chandigarh), Jayanti Prod-ucts
(Agartala) and Khadi and Vil-lage
Indusrties Commission (mainly
Coimbatore).
ITC thus helps the small and
medium enterprises manufacturing
agarbattis continuously by improv-ing
their quality and productivity. It
has already launched brands like
‘Spriha’ and ‘Mangaldeep’ along with

2. Market Survey
a wide range of fragrances like rose,
jasmine, bouquet, sandalwood,
mahur, sambrani and nagchampa.
Packaged quite attractively, these
brands appeal to a cross-section of
consumers at various price segments.
These agarbattis are available in ‘fra-grance
locked packets.’ Fragrance-locking’
is a unique concept of pack-aging
which helps to retain the fra-grance
for a longer period.
Through its participation in the
business, ITC aims to enhance the
competitiveness of the small- and
medium-scale sectors through its
complementary R&D-based product
development and distribution.
In pursuance of its abiding social
commitment, the company contin-ues
to partner with small and me-dium
enterprises to help them raise
their quality and process standards.
Six agarbatti manufacturing units
have received ISO 9001-2000 certifi-cation
aided by the company’s pro-cess
and technical inputs. The busi-ness
continues its collaboration with
various NGOs in Bihar, Karnataka,
Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu to pro-vide
vocational opportunities to ru-ral
youth and economically disad-vantaged
women in keeping with the
company’s commitment.
ITC is also supporting an
‘Agarbatti Community Participation
Programme’ run by the Vyakti Vikas
Kendra, a non-profit organisation
funded by the renowned spiritual
guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and located
near Bangalore. Over 100 village
women are gaining from the train-ing
that this organisation imparts in
rolling agarbattis. ITC is also begin-ning
to extend similar support to
other NGOs in other states like
Bihar, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh,
which are also setting up agarbatti
units, imparting training to village
women in rolling agarbattis.
India’s exports
India’s exports of agarbattis in
2005-06 shot up steeply by 21.68 per
cent when the same reached a level
of Rs 247.42 crore over Rs 203.33
India’s Exports of Agarbattis to Major Countries
During 2003-04 to 2005-06
Item/country 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Per cent growth in
USA 33.36 25.49 35.57 39.54
UAE 13.12 12.90 16.58 28.53
Malaysia 9.78 7.80 10.43 33.32
Brazil 12.57 11.75 10.04 (–) 14.55
UK 8.71 7.26 9.19 26.58
Sri Lanka 5.68 5.68 8.97 57.92
Egypt 4.83 5.52 7.37 33.51
Mauritius 4.40 4.54 6.63 46.04
South Africa 4.84 5.19 6.58 26.78
Australia 4.29 4.13 6.35 53.75
Spain 4.64 3.92 5.74 46.43
Chile 5.89 3.95 5.49 38.99
France 6.96 5.45 5.26 (–) 3.49
Italy 9.95 9.66 4.98 (–) 48.45
Djibouti 2.06 2.48 4.78 92.74
Total (all India) 227.69 203.33 247.42 21.68
Source: Compiled from the data of DGCI&S, Monthly Statistics of Foreign Trade of India, Volume I: Exports &
Re-Exports, March 2004, 2005 and 2006 issues, Kolkata
crore in the previous year. USA con-tinues
to be the largest market.
There was a phenomenal growth of
39.54 per cent to this market during
the period—with exports having
touched a figure of Rs 35.57 crore as
against Rs 25.49 crore. The other
major markets witnessing steep
growth comprised Djibouti (92.74 per
cent), Sri Lanka (57.92 per cent),
Australia (53.75 per cent), Spain
(46.43 per cent), Mauritius (46.04
per cent), Chile (38.99 per cent),
Egypt (33.51 per cent), Malaysia
(33.32 per cent), UAE (28.53 per
cent), South Africa (26.78 per cent)
and UK (26.58 per cent).
On the other hand, the markets
showing a negative growth during
the period included Italy (48.45 per
cent), Brazil (14.55 per cent) and
France (3.49 per cent).
Recent developments
ISO-9001:2000 accorded to
vendors of ITC Ltd. A recent news-paper
(Rs crore)
2005-06 over 2004-05
clipping appearing in The
Hindu Business Line states that
ITC’s ‘Mangldeep’ brand of
agarbattis is being marketed all over
the country through its wide net-work
being operated by the cottage
and small-scale units from Tripura,
Bangalore, Coimbatore, Pondicherry
and New Delhi.
Further, it says that hand-rolled
agarbattis, essentially a cottage sec-tor
art perfected by the tiny sector
artisans at the village level, have
taken their first major step towards
science-backed quality systems in
north-eastern part of India. The
Agartala-based Jayanti Domestic
Products, one of the seven agarbatti
vendors of ITC, manufacturing the
nationally marketed ‘Mangaldeep’
brand of agarbattis has received ISO-
9001:2000 quality certification for
incense sticks within 12 months of
starting full-fledged quality produc-tion.
Herbal bio-pesticide and mos-quito
repellant developed. The

3. Market Survey
Central Institute of Medicinal and
Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, has de-veloped
a herbal formulation for re-pelling
mosquitoes and providing fra-grance
at the same time. The formu-lation
can be used directly without
any mixture in the preparation of
agarbattis, dhoopbattis, lotion, spray
and floor emulsion. The government
has already chalked out a strategy to
commercialise these products for
mass production and consumption.
The know-how for making herbal
agarbattis has already been trans-ferred
to three entrepreneurs for
large-scale production.
ITC launches agarbatti range
in Europe. ITC Ltd has opened up
effective fragrance trail all the way
from Pondicherry to Paris (France)
to launch a new range of handcrafted
agarbattis (packets of 20s and 10s)
in Europe under the brand name
‘Encens de Pondichery.’
The company’s agarbatti strate-gic
business unit has launched three
new series—Heritge de Pondecherry,
L’Air de Pondcherry and Sveurs de
Pondicherry—with five distinctive
fragrances under each, using san-dalwood
powder as base. Speaking
on the occasion, V.M. Rajskharan,
CEO of ITC Agarbattis, said that the
incense sticks were a blend of natu-ral
ingredients and fragrances. ITC
agarbattis’ foray into Europe will
cover France, Spain, Italy, the UK
and Germany.
ITC participation in a series
of agarbatti programmes. ITC
Ltd SBU (Strategic Business Unit)
sourcing agarbattis from the
cottage sector has started working
with Andhra Pradesh Forest Depart-ment
on a quality improvement
programme for hand-cut bamboo—a
critical input for ramping up vol-umes
in the highly unorganised
agarbattis business. The annual con-sumer
spend in agarbattis is Rs 1000
crore with the organised players
(numbering just 7 or 8) accounting
for 25 per cent share.
ITC is also participating in Bam-boo
Development Programme
launched by Tripura Government
and has also launched Vendor De-velopment
Programme in Agartala
under which some 10 million sticks
are being sourced per month.
ITC signs up with Exim Bank
for promotion of agarbattis in
the overseas markets. ITC has
recently signed up with Exim Bank
for providing export marketing ser-vices
to leverage the bank’s overseas
presence to promote agarbattis with
buyers, importers and distributors
abroad. The bank will help locate
business partners for ITC’s
agarbattis, identify customers for
ITC products directly or through its
associates and initiate negotiations
with them, while ITC will finalise
the deal and ensure supplies and de-liveries.
The Export Marketing Ser-vice
offered by EXIM Bank will
supplement ITC’s efforts to expand
export markets.
ITC’s partnership with Exim
Bank will help make quality
agarbattis available to consumers in
other parts of the world. In the pro-cess,
the cottage and small sectors
which make the agarbattis for ITC
will be greatly benefited. Exim Bank
believes that rural enterprises can
make a mark in international mar-kets
with proper guidance and sup-port
provided by corporations and
institutions.
ITC’s alliance with KVIC. The
KVIC-ITC ‘Mangaldeep’ agarbatti
project is a good beginning for devel-oping
linkages with the cottage sec-tor
under the Rural Employment
Guarantee Programme of the Union
Government. The company has iden-tified
Awarampalayam Sarvodya
Sang in Coimbatore as the nodal
agency to supply and monitor the
agarbatti manufacturing activities of
other identified: directly aided insti-tutions
and small REGP units of
KVIC which supply to KVIC.
The author was formerly a research
officer at the Indian Institute of Foreign
Trade, New Delhi
Incense sticks spread out to dry
Hand-rolled agarbattis, essentially a cottage sector art
perfected by the tiny sector artisans at the village level,
have taken their first major step towards science-backed
quality systems in north-eastern part of India.