In the past few years, the consumption of durians in China has been increasing year by year, and the export volume of fresh durians in 2021 alone has reached about four times that of 2017. The fresh durians imported by China are mainly supplied by Thailand. Locally, durians are the largest export agricultural products. Last year, 90% of Thailand's durians were exported to the Chinese market, and some Malaysian durians were exported to China, but the amount was not large.
According to the Vietnamese side, the negotiations on the export of Vietnamese durians to China have entered the final stage, and they are expected to be exported to the Chinese market within this year. Experts estimate that Thailand will remain the leading country in durian exports to China in the next five years, but the export market share is expected to decline due to competition from Vietnam and Malaysia.
This year, due to the poor customs clearance caused by the pandemic in China, the export of Thai durians to China has slowed down. After years of growth, it has declined for the first time. The number of fresh durians imported from Thailand from January to April this year dropped by 36.52% year-on-year.
The main reasons for the decline in fresh durian imports in the first half of this year are the difficulties in customs clearance at ports and the decline in domestic consumption caused by the pandemic.
On the one hand, since last year, due to the pandemic, the land ports have been slow to clear customs or temporarily closed, which has caused great difficulties in the transportation of imported durians. However, the opening and operation of the China-Laos Railway has brought new choices for Thailand’s durian exports. On the other hand, since February, many big cities in China have implemented lockdown management due to the outbreak, and big cities are the largest consumption areas of durian, which has caused the durian market to shrink rapidly. Thailand’s durian exports to China can be described as up-and-downs.
At present, the durians on the domestic market are mainly Thai Monthong, which are currently in the final stage of durians in eastern Thailand, and a small number of southern durians have reached the Chinese market. By the beginning of July, southern durians will officially be on the market in large quantities.
In the past two weeks, the price of Thai durian in Jiaxing Fruit Market has been hovering at 500-700RMB (6 heads), and the price began to decline in late May and early June. The main reason is that durians were jam-packed during that time, and took a long time to arrive at the market, and it was hard to find high-quality products.
As usual, durians produced in eastern Thailand from April to June are the best. But this year unexpectedly, the rainfall in eastern Thailand was very heavy this season, which has led to poor quality, which also led to the early end of the harvest, somewhere end at the end of this month. There will be no durians from eastern Thailand in the market until mid-to-early July. Part of the reasons for the price cut is that there are too many items arriving at once. There should be very few businesses that can earn money on durians this year.
Recently, the durian fruit in eastern Thailand has entered the end of the production season. The quality of the durian is better than before, and the price has risen for three consecutive days. But considering the larger arrivals, the upside is limited.
In addition, Hainan TV recently reported that after decades of development, the industrialization of Hainan durian has begun to take shape, and it is expected to be launched in batches in 2024, with an annual supply capacity of 45,000-75,000 tons. Even so, there is still a long way to go before the true popularization of domestic durians in the domestic market.
Source: Fresh-China