“Thai Durian” meets a heated rival after setting the export goal at 1.3 hundred billion

The King of Thai Fruits, Durians, won the Thai Fruits Export Championship and generated a lot of income for Thailand this year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives expects to export Thai Durians to exceed 130 billion baht. However, Thai Durian’s exports in the first quarter slowed due to drought in Thailand and competition in neighboring countries.

“Thai Durian” is set to export at 1.3 hundred billion baht

Last year, Thai durians held 65.15% of the fresh durian Chinese market share with an import volume of 928,976 tons. Despite the increasing competition, Thai durian exports continued to increase significantly, increasing both volume and value over the previous year.

In terms of goals in 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has a policy to control the quality of fruits throughout the supply chain, both domestic and international markets, so that Thai durian exports this year will exceed 130 billion baht.

“Thai Durian” and its rivals, Vietnam and the Philippines

There is competition in exporting “durians” among many countries. In addition to Thailand, which used to be the leader in durian exports, this status may be shaken by neighboring countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

In the first quarter of this year, China imported only 13,000 tons of durian from Thailand, which decreased by 59% when compared year by year, equivalent to 570 million yuan (2.85 billion baht). The value is down by 63.5% compared to the first quarter of last year, partly due to the delayed import of Thai durian into the Chinese market and the local climate.

Meanwhile, imports of Vietnamese durians are 35,000 tons, increasing by 48.1% when compared year by year, accounting for 1.28 billion yuan (approximately 6.4 billion baht). In addition, the Philippines also sent about 4 tons of durians per flight to China and Malaysia exported frozen Malaysian durians to China.

“Thai Durian” and drought that farmers have to deal with

The El Niño phenomenon that began in the summer created climate change and drought in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand. The sweltering and dry weather has caused many durian gardens to fall and die. Even though they try to water durian trees all morning and evening, they can’t bear the sweltering weather.

The Agricultural Office of Khon Buri District stated that the area of Khon Buri has 3,000 rai of durian cultivation, and 322 farmers generate more than 100 million baht per year in the area. However, the hot and dry weather this year is expected to decrease the durian products by not less than 40 %, which may reduce the amount of money from selling by almost 50 million baht this year.

This climate change is a concern for Thai durian farmers in the future. Moreover, durian farmers have to deal with the problem of pests and enemy insects that invade and destroy the durian trees.