China looks to Malaysia to satisfy national durian craving as import talks accelerate
- Officials from China and Malaysia have signed a six-point statement on shipments of fresh durians from the Southeast Asian country
- A new source of the tropical fruit will go a long way in sating China’s enormous demand, with Malaysia eager to take a bite out of the US$4 billion market
Chinese and Malaysian officials are in talks about opening the former country’s enormous market to exports of the latter’s fresh durians, as appetites grow for the famously pungent tropical fruits.
Chan Foong Hin, Malaysia’s deputy minister of agriculture and food security, said via Facebook on Monday that his department met a Chinese customs delegation in Malaysia on October 5 and signed a six-point statement covering durians.
“The Chinese side agrees to speed up its risk assessment of Malaysian fresh durian, and both sides will cooperate on promoting quarantine inspection work,” the statement read.
Nor Sam Alwi, deputy director general of the Malaysian Department of Agriculture, has expressed hopes for approval next year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with China, according to Malaysian media reports.
Allowing fresh imports would make Malaysia more competitive with Thailand, which in 2022 shipped 99 per cent of all imported durians – both fresh and frozen – in the US$4 billion Chinese market. The Philippines also has licence to export the fruit, and China began to authorise regular shipments of Vietnamese durian last year.
