Thai fruit exports expected to face more competition next year

In the first 10 months of this year, Thailand exported 1.74 million tons of fruits, up 12.7% year on year. The exports were worth US$5.06 billion (174.27 billion baht), up 31.9% year on year.

The top five exported fruits were durians (965,284 tons), longan (274,064 tons), mangosteen (245,049 tons), mango (104,154 tons) and pineapple (36,618 tons).

China has been Thailand's top fruit importer accounting for 91.6% of Thai fruit export value, followed by Malaysia (2.0%), Hong Kong (1.6%), Indonesia (1.0%) and South Korea (0.8%).

Even though China is likely to import more fruits, intense export competition would pose challenges to Thai suppliers, Napintorn said.

For instance, Thailand once completely dominated China's durian market, but its share fell to 95% last year due to inroads by Vietnamese exporters who took 5%.

In the first 10 months this year, Thailand's share had fallen to 70% of China's durian market with Vietnam seizing 30%.

"Vietnam has gained advantage in durian exports due to longer harvest period, so the country can meet the demand of the Chinese market when Thailand is in the production period," the deputy commerce minister explained.

He added that Vietnam could export durians to China in a short period and at low export costs.

Thai durian also faces a challenge from the Phillippines, a newcomer in the Chinese market since January this year.

Meanwhile Malaysia has requested permission from Beijing to export durians, while China too is cultivating durians.

Hence, Thailand needed to seek new potential markets along with maintaining market share in China, Napintorn said.

The General Administration of Customs China has allowed Thailand to export 22 fruits: tamarind, custard apple, papaya, star fruit, guava, rambutan, longkong, sapodilla, passion fruit, mandarin orange, orange, pomelo, pineapple, banana, coconut, jackfruit, longan, durian, mango, lychee, mangosteen and rose apple.