“Can’t compete: China’s home-grown durians scarce, pricey compared to SE Asia”

They spell a windfall for the businessman-turned-farmer: His durians, of the Thai Ganyao variety, are priced at 200 yuan (S$37) per kilogram. If all goes well, Zhang will be around 700,000 yuan richer by the end of the durian season in September.

The bounty will grow further when his Malaysian Musang King and Black Thorn trees start bearing fruit in the next year or two. These varieties can fetch higher premiums, he said, with some even selling for up to 2,000 yuan each.

Across southern China’s Hainan province, savvy farmers like Zhang are driving a rise in home-grown durians, which are not native to the country.

It is a lucrative business opportunity – Chinese consumers love the fruit, eating some 1.4 million tonnes of fresh durian imports from Southeast Asia in 2023, up more than 70 per cent year on year.

But while 2024 marks the second year that domestically produced durians are available on the market, from Monthongs to Musang Kings, very few Chinese will actually get to taste them, as their small yields and high prices render them largely inaccessible for now.  

Fruit quality ‘unstable’

China planted its first durian tree in 1958, but for years, it barely bore fruit. It was only in 2018 that commercial durian farming began in earnest.

Most of this is taking place in tropical Hainan, and there are scattered pockets of growers in Guangxi region and Guangdong province in southern China, as well as in Yunnan province in south-western China.

The country’s first major durian harvest totalled 50 tonnes in 2023. And yields in 2024 are expected to reach 200 tonnes, said agriculture expert Feng Xuejie.

“The output is still very small because the trees have not been growing for long enough,” explained the director of the Institute of Tropical Fruit Trees at the Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. “It takes six or seven years for the yields to start flourishing.”

That Hainan is prone to typhoons also does not help. 

Zhang said: “In May, I had over 3,000 durians growing. But after bouts of heavy rain, many dropped and there are now only 1,000 left.”

China’s nascent durian industry is still finding its footing.

Growers are working to step up not just production quantities, but also the fruit’s quality – which Feng describes as “unstable”.

Zhang said the taste of Hainan’s durians right now varies widely. “There are delicious ones, but these are very few. The majority don’t taste good.”

He recalls that his first crop in 2022 had “no taste whatsoever”. It took an adjustment to the fertiliser’s formula before the durians’ taste drastically improved the next year.

“Home-grown durians are still in the exploratory stage,” he said, with planting techniques needing to be studied and experimented with.

Zhang said he learnt his trade from a family friend – a durian farmer in Malaysia – whom he consults over WeChat.

Reaching consumers

The scarcity of Hainan’s durians – amounting in 2024 to just 0.014 per cent of what was imported in 2023 – has driven up prices.

Some sell for between 120 yuan and 140 yuan a kilogram, local media reported. Some farmers, like Zhang, charge 200 yuan a kilogram. 

Prices will probably come down in two or three years when there are more Hainan durians on the market, said Feng.

At a store named Hainan Quality Goods And Local Specialties at the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing, located outside a hall selling durians from Southeast Asia, there was no sign of Hainan durians when The Straits Times visited on a Saturday morning.

“Too expensive, can’t sell them,” said Ai Dong, who works at the store. “They are 60 yuan a jin (500g)! Those from Thailand are just 20 yuan to 30 yuan a jin.”

Durian lover Li Panda said he feels proud that China can grow its own durians. He and his 35-year-old wife visit the wholesale market every week or two to buy the fruit.

But Li also expects them to be priced more competitively – cheaper than imported durians – in the years to come.

“When Chinese people grow things, they drive down costs,” said the 40-year-old, who works in the manufacturing industry.

Suitable land is scarce

While China’s durian production capacity is projected to increase as more trees are planted and mature, “home-grown durians cannot develop to a very large scale”, said Feng, the tropical fruit expert.

This is because durians are a notoriously finicky fruit to grow, and need specific soil and climate conditions to flourish.

“Very few places (in China) can grow durians,” he said. “We are restricted by the land available.”

Even on Hainan, durians can grow only in the south of the island, Zhang said.

Feng noted that this, coupled with Chinese consumers’ voracious appetite for the fruit, means that local production is unlikely to affect sales of Southeast Asian durians in China.

Domestic durians, he said, serve more as a supplement to imports.

In 2023, China imported 929,000 tonnes of fresh durians from Thailand, 493,000 tonnes from Vietnam, and 3,763 tonnes from the Philippines – with total shipments valued at over US$6.7 billion.

Imports of fresh Malaysian durians will commence soon after a bilateral deal allowing for this was inked when Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Kuala Lumpur in June. Malaysia has hitherto only been able to export frozen whole durians and durian products to China.

“We cannot compete with Southeast Asia on quantity. Land and labour costs are also higher in China,” Feng said.

“So the aim needs to be high-end, high-quality durians.”