China spent nearly 1 billion USD buying Vietnamese durian in one month

According to statistics from the Customs Department, in the first 9 months of 2025, durian exports earned nearly 2.77 billion USD. Of which, in September alone, export turnover jumped to 972 million USD, a sharp increase of 44.6% compared to the same period in 2024 and a record high for a month.

China remains the largest traditional market, spending up to 960 million USD to import Vietnam's "king fruit" in September, accounting for 98.8% of the total durian export turnover in the month.

Accumulated to the end of September 2025, durian exports to China reached 2.59 billion USD, accounting for 93.6% of the export turnover of the entire durian industry in Vietnam.

Besides China, Vietnam's durian exports have begun to expand to many new markets. Hong Kong (China) increased by 83.7% to 42.8 million USD, Taiwan (China) increased by 64.9% to 32 million USD, Papua New Guinea and the US increased by 44.6% and 36.5% respectively.

Malaysia stands out with a rise of over 650%, although the absolute value remains small. In contrast, Thailand - once a major transit market - saw a 74.5% drop to just $33.9 million, reducing its market share from 4.7% to 1.2%.

According to Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen - General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, after a boom year, Vietnam's durian has entered a phase of quality competition and process standardization. If it continues to expand the coded growing areas and invest in processing, Vietnam can maintain its leading position in the region, aiming to reach the milestone of 3.5 billion USD this year.

Durian exports stabilize again after short interruption due to testing

After a short period of being affected by the inspection bottleneck, Vietnam's durian export activities have stabilized again, ensuring customs clearance progress and product consumption for people and businesses, especially in the end-of-season area in the Central Highlands region.

Recently, there has been some information reflecting the situation of durian congestion in some localities; including Dak Lak - the locality with the largest durian growing area in the country. The cause was determined to be that some testing rooms temporarily stopped operating for maintenance, repair or waiting for capacity reassessment, leading to the inability of businesses to complete the analysis of Cadmium and Yellow O indicators - mandatory conditions for granting export certification to China.

This situation has slowed down customs clearance, affected consumption activities, and caused concern among the business community and durian growers.

Faced with that situation, on October 24, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Hoang Trung held an urgent meeting with relevant units, requesting designated facilities to review their operational status, transparent capacity and ensure accuracy and consistency between domestic and Chinese results. The Deputy Minister directed that testing work must be carried out quickly and seriously to avoid data discrepancies that cause exported goods to be returned. Therefore, the above situation was handled promptly.

Mr. Huynh Tan Dat, Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, also said that Vietnam currently has 24 testing laboratories recognized by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) to serve durian exports, with a total capacity of about 3,200 samples/day, enough to meet actual demand. However, since mid-October, some laboratories have temporarily stopped operating, affecting the testing progress.

Up to now, after a week of drastic action and close direction from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the situation of durian testing has basically returned to normal. Testing rooms have resumed operations, increased working hours, and ensured delivery progress for businesses.

According to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, durian export activities at the main border gates are currently running smoothly. Every day, about 300-400 durian trucks clear customs; of which about 200-250 trucks are in Lang Son, 100-150 trucks are in Lao Cai and about 50 trucks are in Mong Cai.

Source: https://vtv.vn/trung-quoc-chi-gan-1-ty-usd-mua-sau-rieng-viet-trong-mot-thang-100251102183004289.htm