Due to lower production, the farm gate price of imported durians has been rising. Traders revealed that a box this year is two to three hundred yuan more expensive, which is equivalent to an increase of more than thirty yuan per half a kilo in wholesale prices.
Durian is one of the few fruits in China that rely solely on imports. The market continues to be active. In 2019, imports increased by 48% and exceeded cherries, making durian the king of imported fruits. Products approved for export to China are mainly fresh durians from Thailand and frozen durians from Malaysia.
According to customs data, between January and June 2020, China’s imports of fresh and frozen durians totaled RMB 11.27 billion, almost reaching the total import value of 12.59 billion in 2019. Compared with the same period in 2019, import value increased by 73.5%, and import volume also reached 397,000 tons, showing a year-on-year increase of 10.8%. The unit import price increased from 18.1 yuan per kilogram to 28.4 yuan, showing an increase of 56.4%.
Public information shows that since China gradually lifted restrictions on fruit imports, imports have been growing each year. In addition, with the improvement of fresh fruit distribution chains such as Daily Fresh and JD Daojia, the development of the fruit industry has attracted a lot of attention.
According to the data on the pro version of Tianyancha, since 2014, the number of companies operating fruit-related businesses in China has increased at an annual growth rate of over 20%. As of January 12, 2021, there are more than 3.57 million fruit-related companies in China. These companies are mainly concentrated in Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Zhejiang, and most of them are in the wholesale or retail business, accounting for 68.57% of the total.