Vietnam is accelerating negotiations to export greater volumes of durian to China through official channels following pilot shipments of the fruit to Australia last June.

Despite suffering from the adverse impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, China remained as the largest consumer of Vietnamese durian last year.

Statistics show China imported up to 397,000 tonnes of durian worldwide worth US$1.62 billion, a rise of 10.8% in volume compared to figures from 2019. Yet, its import of the Vietnamese durian witnessed a decline of 66.3% during the first eight months last year.   

Vietnam mainly exports pod, peeled, and frozen durians to the Chinese market, the majority of which go via unofficial channels. However, China recently decided to temporarily suspend these unofficial channels due to COVID-19 fears, causing difficulty for local exporters.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is therefore seeking to accelerate negotiations with the Chinese side in order to export a wide range of agricultural products through official channels. In line with this policy, priority will be given to durian, sweet potato, bird's nest, pomelo, passion fruit, avocado, custard apple, coconut, cardamom and pineapple, salted jellyfish, dried sea cucumber, and goby fish.