More opportunities as Thailand imports frozen durian from Vietnam

Besides exporting a large amount of fresh durian to China, Vietnam also exports a lot of frozen durian to Thailand. This is considered a great opportunity for our country's billion-dollar fruit.

Frozen durian from Vietnam to Thailand increased by 90%

Responding to reporters from the Investment Electronic Newspaper - Baodautu.vn , Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that recently, Thailand has continuously increased its imports of frozen durian from Vietnam to serve domestic processing needs or export to a third country.

Thailand increases exports of frozen durian from Vietnam.

According to data provided by Mr. Nguyen, in the first 6 months of 2024, Thailand imported 65 million USD worth of frozen durian from Vietnam, an increase of 90% over the same period.

“In 2023, of the 137 million USD of frozen durian exports from Vietnam, Thailand alone imported 101 million USD, the rest went to several countries such as the US and China…”, Mr. Nguyen informed.

This person also explained that although Thailand has a higher durian output and value than Vietnam, it still imports more frozen durian from Vietnam because Thailand has a very short durian season, only 4 months. Meanwhile, Vietnam's durian season is year-round. In addition, severe drought has caused this country's durian to decrease in both quantity and quality, so it must be imported to serve domestic and tourist demand.

In addition, the representative of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association also said that Thailand is strongly increasing investment in deep processing of confectionery products from durian, so it is increasing the import of frozen durian.

"Last year, Thailand harvested more than 1.5 million tons, while Vietnam only harvested 1 million tons, but we have durian all year long, but during the early and late stages of the season, Thailand lacks goods, so we have to increase our imports," Mr. Nguyen explained.

New opportunity for billion dollar fruit

A representative of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association said that out of 1 million tons of durian in 2023, only about 450,000 tons of fresh fruit will be exported, the rest will be frozen goods. Therefore, exporting frozen durian is a great opportunity that businesses in this industry need to exploit strongly. In fact, Vietnam is also waiting for the Protocol on frozen durian to China to be implemented soon. Currently, the procedures for official export to this market have been sent by the Plant Protection Department ( Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ) to the Chinese Customs.

“The advantage of frozen products is that they have a minimum shelf life of one year, and can be used as raw materials for export or further processing domestically. The price of frozen durian is also around 300,000-400,000 VND/kg depending on the time,” said Mr. Nguyen.

Also talking about the advantages of exporting frozen durian, recently Ms. Vu Kim Hanh, President of the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods (BSA), commented that frozen durian preserved with the right technology will be the top choice of users when fresh whole fruit has many risks in terms of quality, and even during the export preservation stage, it is easily damaged when affected by time and temperature.

Despite the advantages and great opportunities, industry experts advise that if businesses want to make frozen durian to increase its value, they need to invest properly and research technology carefully so as not to fall behind other countries. The high cost of investing in machinery, space for storing raw materials and scrap is also a problem that businesses wanting to invest in making frozen durian must calculate.

According to Mr. Gia Cat Doan, Chairman of Gia Cat Consumer Joint Stock Company, recently this enterprise has also tried exporting frozen durian to the Chinese market but also encountered many difficulties, especially the quality standards of durian segments and investment capital for storage.

“The durian is split open, quickly frozen, then put into normal refrigeration and packaged for export. However, the standards for frozen durian segments are many times higher than those for whole fruit. Meanwhile, durian is purchased in many different types and is not uniform, so it is often returned, causing businesses that invest in exporting segments to often lose money. In addition, renting a warehouse, investing in high-tech cold storage, and then investing in cold transportation at the right temperature when exporting also increases the cost of the business a lot,” said Mr. Doan.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/them-co-hoi-khi-thai-lan-nhap-khau-manh-sau-rieng-dong-lanh-tu-viet-nam-d221004.html