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| Vietnam is completing procedures to open the export of durian to India. (Photo: VNA) |
Statistics show positive signs from durian as the planting area, output and export value have continuously increased, from nearly 32,000 hectares in 2015 to nearly 151,000 hectares in 2023. Durian output has also increased year by year, reaching nearly 1.2 million tons in 2023, while it was only about 366,000 tons in 2015. Durian export value increased from 29.2 million USD in 2016 to 420 million USD in 2022 and nearly 2.3 billion USD in 2023. That shows the rapid effectiveness that durian has brought to people and businesses.
Despite the growth, in reality, the main market for Vietnamese durian is still China, accounting for 96.8% of the total export turnover of the entire durian industry in Vietnam. Dependence on one market will cause difficulties for consumption. Therefore, how to ensure growth and avoid that dependence will be an issue that experts, people, and the government need to work together on to develop the durian industry in a stable and long-term manner.
In addition to export of fresh fruit, businesses need to focus on deep processing of durian to increase the value of this agricultural product and have more opportunities to increase market share and dominate the import market. In fact, exporting fresh durian has quite high preservation and transportation costs due to the transportation schedule and short preservation time, so profits are limited. Risks and damage during the export process are still remain. Therefore, researching in-depth processing, converting to the form of exporting frozen durian segments to minimize risk and increase economic value will be a solution that businesses need to aim for.
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| Frozen durian waiting for official export to China. (Photo: thanhnien.vn) |
Currently, provinces with large durian growing areas are negotiating to officially export frozen durian to the Chinese market. If this agreement is reached, Vietnamese durian will have more distribution directions and thereby diversify the market. In addition, freezing will also offer opportunity to process higher-end and specialized products to enter Europe, Australia and the US. Focusing on in-depth processing and exporting frozen durian is a promising direction, opening up good opportunities for Vietnamese durian.
In addition to the main market of China, Vietnamese durian is now expanding to a number of potential markets such as the Republic of Korea, ASEAN and especially the billion-strong market of India. The opening of the Indian market is good news for the Vietnamese durian industry, contributing to reducing dependence on the Chinese market.
At the same time, it also opens up prospects for sustainable development and diversification of consumption sources for durian. Although the application has been submitted, we are still waiting for India to consider signing the protocol to start exporting durian to this market. However, according to experts, India is a market that does not have strict regulations like China.
Market expansion is very important, but the decisive factor must still be the quality of Vietnamese durian. Aiming to export sustainably and attract many potential markets in the future, we need to focus on improving the quality of durian, controlling quality, and managing growing area codes to avoid possible violations in the future./.