Rising durian appetite wows traders, growers

The New Western Land-Sea Corridor has helped to transport durian faster by land from Guangxi to other cities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, Hubei province, and Zhengzhou, Henan province. It takes three days to ship durian from Qinzhou Port to Chongqing, while it would take more than 15 days for traditional river routes on the Yangtze River, according to Qinzhou Port officials.

The land-sea corridor is to be extended not only from Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Chongqing to Beibu Gulf Port, but also to Yangpu Port in Hainan province.

Qinzhou Port is the domestic port with the biggest number of container ships bound for the markets of member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In 2021, annual cargo throughput at the port reached 160 million tons, local government officials said. Qinzhou Port also handles imports of mangosteens, dragon fruit, bananas, mangos and jackfruit.

Guangxi TWT Supply Chain Management Co Ltd, a Nanning-based cross-border trading company founded in 2015, said it imports fruit from ASEAN markets on a large scale. The company started to import durian in 2018.In the past few years, the volume of durian imports grew by more than 17 percent annually, fueled by strong demand from Chinese consumers.

"We import durian from Thailand and Malaysia worth about $60 million annually. Durian is mainly sold to Northeast, East and South China. Land transport through the New Western Land-Sea Corridor takes half the time of river shipping," said Wang Zhengbo, president of Guangxi TWT Supply Chain Management.

Since the pandemic, the government has enacted strict management and control measures for many products transported by cold-chain shipping due to the possibility of the virus surviving on some surfaces. As a result, shipping times usually take an additional three to eight days, and logistics costs have grown by more than 30 percent, according to Guangxi TWT.

Southeast Asian countries have continued to export tropical fruit to China, given their advantageous weather, proximity to China and preferential tariff policies.

The period from May to August is the busiest for the durian harvest, and trade at that time is usually dominated by fresh durian. At other times, frozen durian makes up for shortages of fresh fruit.

Even though the volume of frozen durian imports lags behind that of fresh, in recent years, convenience, stability during shipment and cost-effectiveness have made frozen durian not only a substitute for the fresh fruit, but also a popular choice for consumers on its own, according to Goodfarmer Foods Holding (Group) Co Ltd, a Shanghai-based online fresh food retailer.

Goodfarmer said the company regards fresh durian and frozen durian as two categories, and it has two teams doing research on them separately. The company also plans to develop frozen durian as a snack food to cater to consumer tastes.