Somaliland frankincense resin in bulk. Beeyo and maydi

Two species, sold separately. Beeyo is the frankincense the trade sells as Boswellia carterii. Maydi, from Boswellia frereana, is native only to the Somali north. Both are our main line, sorted into five working grades and offered by the lot, with a sample first.

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Beeyo and maydi

They come from different trees, look different, are harvested in different seasons and go to different buyers. We specify, quote and sell them as separate lots.

Beeyo and maydi compared
Type	Beeyo	Maydi
Botanical name	Boswellia sacra Flück.¹	Boswellia frereana Birdw.²
Name in trade	Boswellia carterii; Somali frankincense; olibanum³	Maydi, also written meydi or maidi⁴
The tree, in Somali	Moxor, also written mohor⁵	Yagcar⁵
Native range	Northern and north-eastern Somalia, southern Yemen and south-western Oman¹	Northern and north-eastern Somalia only²
Resin	Milky, yellow-brown⁵	Large golden tears⁵
Harvest	Summer, the season called xagaa⁵	Winter, the season called deyreed⁵
Scent, as we describe it	Bright, citrus and pine, with a warm resinous base	Soft, lemony and fresh, less sharp than beeyo
Main uses	Essential-oil distillation, perfumery and cosmetics, incense⁵	Chewing, incense, distillation for perfumery and cosmetics^4,5
Supply	Core supply	Core supply

About the name carterii

Kew’s Plants of the World Online accepts Boswellia sacra as the correct name and treats Boswellia carteri as a synonym.⁶ Much of the trade still uses the synonym, usually spelt carterii.³ We give the accepted name with the trade name beside it, so that both are on your documents.

Somali and Omani resin of this species can be told apart chemically, although botanists treat them as one species.⁷

A third species you should know about

Sanaag has a third frankincense tree, Boswellia occulta, described by botanists only in 2019 and long harvested locally as mohor madow.⁸ A 2019 study found its marker compound, 1-methoxydecane, in 9 of 13 commercial oils sold as pure Boswellia carterii, including 4 of 5 that were certified organic, which suggests that its resin is traded mixed with beeyo.⁹

Beeyo and maydi look different,⁵ and we tell them apart by eye. The eye cannot rule this third species out; GC-MS picks its marker up readily.¹⁰ If your specification excludes it, say so in your RFQ. We will tell you where the lot was collected and arrange a GC-MS screen of the lot before you commit.

Grades

Frankincense is graded by size, colour and cleanliness. Traditional practice sorts maydi into six or more grades and beeyo into three.⁴ Grade names and sizes vary between traders, so we use one working ladder of five for both types and write the specification down.

Frankincense grades
Grade	What it looks like	Typical use
Superior, large tears	Largest, clean, light-coloured tears	Retail packing, gifts, top incense
Grade 1	Large to medium tears, light colour, very clean	Fine incense, retail, distillation
Grade 2	Medium tears, slightly darker, clean	Incense and bakhoor blends, distillation
Grade 3, pieces	Smaller tears and broken pieces	Distillation, blending
Siftings	Small pieces and powder left after grading	Distillation, extraction, powdered incense

These are our working grades, not an industry standard. Grade names and sizes vary between traders, so the specification is agreed with you in writing and checked against a sample of the lot on offer.

Traditional grade names

If you buy maydi by a traditional grade name, send us your definition or a reference sample. It goes into the written specification.

Specification

The lines of the written specification. Copy them into your RFQ and set your own figures: a size range can be checked with a ruler, and “large tears” cannot.

The lines of the written specification, and how each is settled
Line	What the written specification states	Status
Resin	Beeyo or maydi, with the botanical name. One type to a lot	Every order
Grade	Our working grade, and your own name for it if you use one	Every order
Piece size	The smallest and largest piece in millimetres, and the share by weight allowed outside that range	Yours to set
Colour	The colour you expect, in plain words, judged against the approved sample	Every order
Bark, stone and other foreign matter	Removed in cleaning. A maximum by weight can be written in	Yours to set
Siftings	The size below which a piece counts as siftings, and the maximum by weight	Yours to set
Moisture	A maximum and the test method. Measured by an outside laboratory	On request
GC-MS profile	By an outside laboratory, named on the report. Ask for 1-methoxydecane to be reported if species purity matters to you	On request
Essential-oil content	Not measured as standard. Distil the sample, or ask us to arrange an analysis	On request
Harvest	The season or collection period, if it matters to you. Collection area and date are on the lot list	Yours to set
Sampling	The sample is drawn from the lot on offer. State how you want it drawn, and whether a counter-sample should be kept and for how long	Every order
Packing	25 kg woven bags as standard. State the bag or carton you need, the net weight of each and the tolerance on it	Every order
Marks	The lot number on every bag, and any marks of your own	Every order
Storage and transit	Any condition your material needs between packing and arrival	Yours to set
Reference	The sample and photographs of the lot you approved, and its lot number	Every order
Identifiers	Any CAS, EC or INCI entry your ingredient file uses. We publish none for raw resin, so state the ones you work to	Yours to set

Published reference values

From published studies. These are not measurements of our lots and are not a specification. The analysis of the lot itself is what counts.
Parameter	Published value
Essential-oil yield, Somali B. sacra resin	Typically 4 to 8%⁹
Oil chemistry of B. sacra	More than one chemotype. The study describes the oils of the known Boswellia chemotypes as dominated by terpenes, fatty alcohols or fatty esters, and gives no single profile for Somali resin⁹
B. frereana oil, single-tree samples from Sanaag	α-thujene 14.5 to 43.9%, α-pinene 3.0 to 63.0%, with sabinene and p-cymene¹¹
Boswellic acids in B. frereana resin	None found. Its triterpenes are mainly lupeol, α-amyrin, 3-epi-lupeol and β-amyrin^7,11
B. occulta oil, single-tree samples	1-methoxydecane 26.6 to 47.9%¹⁰

Terms

Delivery term: FOB BerberaCIF to your port on request
Packing: 25 kg woven bagsCartons, inner liners and custom packing on request
Samples: Usually 100 g to 1 kg per gradeBy courier, drawn from the lot on offer
Payment: Bank transfer or letter of creditThe quotation names the entity you contract with and the account you pay. If you want a letter of credit, ask your own bank first.
First orders: Small first orders are welcomeTell us the quantity and we will say whether we can supply it.
Stated in each quotation: Price, minimum quantity and lead timeNone of the three is fixed in advance: each depends on the product, the grade and the season. The quotation gives them for a named lot, per kilogram by grade, and says how long it holds.

Documents

Before you order: Written specification
Sample and photographs of the lot
With every shipment: Commercial invoice
Packing list
Lot list
Certificate of origin
Phytosanitary certificate
Bill of lading or air waybill
When you ask: Insurance certificate, with CIF orders
Laboratory analysis
Safety data sheet
Business licence and export licence
Not available: Organic, wild-collection or fair-trade certificate: none held

Origin on customs records Tariff preference lists name Somalia, not Somaliland, so expect the origin to be recorded as Somalia (SO).^12,13 Ask your broker how to declare it before the first shipment.

Who issues each paper, and when you receive it, is set out on How it works.

Packing and shipping

Standard packing: 25 kg woven bags. Cartons, inner liners and custom packing on request.
Marks: Each bag carries its lot number. The same number is on the packing list and the invoice. See a demonstration lot record.
Port of loading: Berbera, on the Gulf of Aden. FOB Berbera as standard, CIF to your port on request, air freight for small urgent lots. How shipping from Berbera works.
Classification: Frankincense is declared under HS 1301.90, with other natural gums and resins.^14,15 Duty by market.

Origin and harvest

We buy from harvesters and graders in Sanaag, Sahil and Togdheer. Published studies document both frankincense species in Sanaag, and the same trees continue east into Puntland.⁵ The area each bag was collected in is written on the lot list.

Boswellia sacra grows from sea level to about 1,400 metres, usually on exposed rock. Boswellia frereana keeps lower, mostly under 500 metres, on rock or rocky soil and often along gullies.⁵

Somaliland and the Gulf of Aden. Region names are placed for orientation, without boundaries. Berbera is about 160 km from Hargeisa by road.¹⁶ The sea lanes point to the hubs the terminal operator lists for its feeder services;¹⁷ they are drawn schematically and are not shipments of ours.

How the resin is taken

Harvesters make small cuts in the bark, leave the resin to harden, and scrape it off. The cut is reopened for each new round. Resin is collected roughly every 15 to 20 days for beeyo and every 15 to 30 days for maydi, once it is no longer sticky.⁵

Under traditional practice a tree is not tapped until it is at least 10 cm across. It then gets three, six or nine cuts depending on its size, and never more than ten to twelve on the largest trees. It is tapped for two years and rested for one.⁵

Practice does not always match the rule. Fieldwork in Sanaag in 2016 and 2017 found most trees carrying more than twelve cuts at eight of ten sites surveyed.⁵ That is why we have buying rules.

Our buying rules Self-declared

We buy only from trees whose ownership is not in dispute, and from harvesters who keep to tapping limits and rest periods.

These are our own rules, and no third party audits them. Ask us how they were applied to the lot you are offered.

Who owns the trees

Groves in Sanaag are family holdings passed down under customary law, called xeer. Owners tap the trees themselves or rent them to other harvesters.⁵

Uses

Essential-oil distillers: In our grade table, distillation is a use for every grade below the top one. Both resins are distilled into essential oil.⁵ See the notes for distillers.
Fragrance and cosmetics: Frankincense oil is used as a base and fixative in soaps, cosmetics and perfumes.⁴
Incense and bakhoor: Graded tears for loose incense and blends; siftings for powdered incense.
Chewing: Maydi is valued as a natural chewing gum, and its top grades are regarded as a prestigious chewing product in Saudi Arabia.⁴ We make no food-safety statement for resin bought for chewing.

We make no health or therapeutic claim for either resin.

Trade rules

CITES: No Boswellia species was CITES-listed in January 2026, after the Parties’ meeting of November and December 2025.¹⁸ At that meeting they adopted decisions on the genus instead: a meeting of those concerned, and a request that range states assess whether any species needs further consideration.¹⁹ A listing can change, so check Species+ for the date you ship.
European Union: All Boswellia species have been in Annex D of the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations since 19 January 2022, which means imports are monitored.²⁰ Ask your broker whether an import notification applies to the form you buy.
Organic certification: On its own it does not establish the species in a frankincense lot: the study cited above found the second species in certified oils.⁹

Questions

Which grade suits distillation, and which suits incense?: For distillation the tear will not be seen again, so cleanliness matters more than size: in our ladder, every grade below the top one is used for it. Incense and retail packers take the larger, lighter tears of the superior grade and grade 1. Tell us what you make and we will suggest a grade and send samples to compare.
When is the harvest?: By the published account, beeyo is tapped through the summer season, xagaa, and maydi through the winter season, deyreed, each of which runs for several months.⁵ The date each purchase was collected is on the lot list.
Do you supply black frankincense?: Not as a listed product. We know of no agreed botanical meaning for the name. Tell us the species you mean, or send a reference sample, and we will treat it as a sourcing request.
Can you supply frankincense essential oil?: Resin is what we sell. Oil can be arranged on request through partner distillers, with the oil batch tied back to the resin lot it was distilled from.

Tell us the type, grade and quantity.

We answer with what is available, a sample of the lot and a quotation for it.

Not ready to quote? Request a sample of a lot or message Canada on WhatsApp.

References

Published sources for the reference facts on this page, last read 7 October 2026. Statements about how Orivex Exports works are our own and are not drawn from these sources.

1Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026). Boswellia sacra Flück. Plants of the World Online. powo.science.kew.org
2Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026). Boswellia frereana Birdw. Plants of the World Online. powo.science.kew.org
3CBI, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2026). The European market potential for frankincense. cbi.eu
4Coppen J.J.W., in Chikamai B., Casadei E. (eds) (2005). Production and marketing of gum resins: frankincense, myrrh and opoponax (chapter 1). NGARA Publication Series 5, Network for Natural Gums and Resins in Africa. botanical-dermatology-database.info
5DeCarlo A., Ali S., Ceroni M. (2020). Ecological and economic sustainability of non-timber forest products in post-conflict recovery: a case study of the frankincense (Boswellia spp.) resin harvesting in Somaliland (Somalia). Sustainability 12(9): 3578. mdpi.com
6Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026). Boswellia carteri Birdw. (synonym of Boswellia sacra). Plants of the World Online. powo.science.kew.org
7Schmiech M., Lang S.J., Werner K., Rashan L.J., Syrovets T., Simmet T. (2019). Comparative analysis of pentacyclic triterpenic acid compositions in oleogum resins of different Boswellia species […]. Molecules 24(11): 2153. mdpi.com
8Thulin M., DeCarlo A., Johnson S.P. (2019). Boswellia occulta (Burseraceae), a new species of frankincense tree from Somalia (Somaliland). Phytotaxa 394(3): 219–224. phytotaxa.mapress.com
9Johnson S., DeCarlo A., Satyal P., Dosoky N.S., Sorensen A., Setzer W.N. (2019). Organic certification is not enough: the case of the methoxydecane frankincense. Plants 8(4): 88. mdpi.com
10Johnson S., DeCarlo A., Satyal P., Dosoky N.S., Sorensen A., Setzer W.N. (2019). The chemical composition of Boswellia occulta oleogum resin essential oils. Natural Product Communications. aromaticplant.org
11Johnson S., DeCarlo A., Satyal P., Dosoky N.S., Sorensen A., Setzer W.N. (2021). The chemical composition of single-tree Boswellia frereana resin samples. Natural Product Communications 16(9). aromaticplant.org
12UK Department for Business and Trade (2026). Preference tiers under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme. gov.uk
13European Commission, Taxation and Customs Union (2026). The Registered Exporter system (REX). taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
14Canada Border Services Agency (2026). Customs Tariff 2026, Chapter 13: lac; gums, resins and other vegetable saps and extracts. cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
15US International Trade Commission (2026). Harmonized Tariff Schedule, heading 1301. hts.usitc.gov
16Logistics Cluster (n.d.). Somalia: Port of Berbera, logistics capacity assessment. d10.dlca.logcluster.org
17DP World (2026). Berbera: port and terminal information, scheduled services. dpworld.com
18CBI, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2026). Entering the European market for frankincense. cbi.eu
19CITES Conference of the Parties (2025). Decision 20.230, Boswellia trees (Boswellia spp.). As published on ECOLEX. ecolex.org
20European Commission (2021). Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/2280 amending the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations. Official Journal of the European Union. eur-lex.europa.eu