Durian growers in Thailand are preparing for stringent import checks with their largest purchaser — China, because the country continues to implement its zero-Covid-19 coverage on the border.
Mold , Thailand exported more than 875 thousand tonnes of its pungent yellow fruit to China by land, sea and air, generating an estimated three.4 billion USD, according to the Department of Agriculture.
This year, Thai farmers hope to increase their exports as they anticipate larger harvests, but China’s continued enforcement of a strict covid coverage threaten to derail the season’s high expectations.
Currently, land transport by truck is the most typical technique of export. But if Covid-19 is detected at the border, durian goods could possibly be destroyed and the border closed for days or even weeks.
Farmers have already felt the sting, when last 12 months an estimated tens of hundreds of tonnes of durian had been spoiled.
This 12 months the Thai government is looking to join its neighbour Laos in exporting produce via the brand new China-Laos excessive velocity railway, which connects the capital of Vientiane to the Chinese metropolis of Kunming in the southwest province of Yunnan.
According to the Thai Durian Association, one train might transport between 35 to 50 containers of the spiky fruit.
Durian season beings in March every year, peaking in mid-May and June, earlier than ultimately ending in December..