It is peak durian season in Thailand. However, domestic durian consumption in Thailand recently decreased while large volumes of durian are exported. Why is this? An analytical article on the Chinese Nikkei website on July 16th stated that the dynamic changes in Asian economy are behind this development. The improvement of cross-border communications networks and the expansion of e-commerce services have brought production countries and consumer countries closer together.
Thai durian
The analytical article also referred to several well-known Chinese e-commerce platforms that not only sell products in Southeast Asia, but also purchase products from Southeast Asia to strengthen the huge Chinese market. In this process, durian are noteworthy. Online sales of Thai durian, which includes pre-ordered durian, reached 80 thousand whole durian in the first minute. This made durian a hot discussion topic.
The article further cited data from the Thai government to show that the annual durian production in Thailand in the five years up until 2017 averaged around 600 thousand tons. The annual export volume in that same period averaged 500 thousand tons. The majority of Thai export consists of fresh products. The main export destination is China. Up until 2016, 80% to 90% of Thai export was headed for China.
Source: haiwai.net