The Battle of Durians in China THAILAND VS MALAYSIA

The Chinese mainly consume Thai durians, particularly the Golden Pillow variety. It is then followed by Malaysian and Vietnamese durian varieties. Although Malaysia has been exporting durians to China for some time now, it was only recently, i.e. May 2019 that we were officially permitted to export frozen whole durians.

However, one has to be able to gauge the demand in the China market, logistics, costs and other issues pertaining to further improve the export of Malaysian durians.

As the saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Durian production focus

Thailand was initially the only country cleared for the export of frozen whole durians into China. Malaysia began exporting frozen durian pulp into China in 2011 and has eventually been permitted to export frozen whole durians in 2019. On the other hand, Vietnam plays quite an insignificant role in exporting as durians can only be exported via border trade at the China –