Text/Wang Xinxi
The price of durian, which used to be expensive, has fallen repeatedly recently, and as durian in eastern Thailand enters the peak season, the price of durian has fallen by about half compared to the beginning of April. With the news that domestic durian will exceed 2.5 million tons this year, the price has not yet reached the bottom.
In the Xiaoshan Agricultural Products Wholesale Market in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the stall owner introduced, "Recently, a large number of durians have been on the market, and there is a price a day. According to the CCTV report, the price of Thai Golden Pillow durian in the Guangzhou market is about 26~35 yuan per catty, which is half cheaper than in early April.
But this is still not cheap compared to other places, and the wholesale price in Kunming has even fallen below 10 yuan a catty. In some areas, ordinary fruit stores also put up signboards for 100 yuan and 5 Musang King durians to attract customers.
Durian, which used to cost 60~70 yuan a catty, is now only sold for about 20 yuan in many areas, and the high-priced durian piled up on the streets of Thailand is gradually unpopular.
In fact, although the price of durian has fallen now, the number of people who buy durian has not increased as expected, after all, it costs one or two hundred yuan to buy a durian, and even two or three hundred yuan.
Why did the price of durian plummet? The number of people buying has not increased? The reason behind this is that, on the one hand, the planting area and output of domestic durian have increased significantly, and a total of 1,400 acres of durian trees have achieved fruit bearing in 2023, with a total output of 50 tons. In 2024, the fruit-bearing area of durian trees will increase to 4,000 mu, and the total output will reach 250 tons, with the main varieties including Golden Pillow, Ganyao, and Musang King.
This has led to the domestic durian planted in Hainan in the mainland will also be listed in large quantities, and the scarcity of durian has been broken.
At the same time, the concept of consumers has changed, on the one hand, many people are under great pressure in life, consumption is downgraded, durian is not a necessity, and secondly, the concept of consumer health is gradually popularized, durian is high in calories, eating more durian is not beneficial to the body, and some people with diabetes or other chronic diseases do not dare to eat durian at all.
This has caused deep anxiety in both Thailand and Vietnam.
"Watching those fresh durians rot in the field, we can only do nothing." So said the Vietnamese farmer. Data shows that Vietnam's durian exports to China have fallen by 10% this year.
Previously, the first batch of 195 tons of Thai durian has been exposed to the news that it has arrived in Guangzhou, and it is claimed that it is being sent to major fruit wholesale markets "quickly". If you don't sell it quickly, you won't be able to sell it.
How much do Chinese love durian? One out of every five durians in the world is eaten in China.
For durian, Chinese have always had an extraordinary love and preference, although a durian costs a few hundred yuan, but everyone's consumer demand for this high-priced fruit is still rising. Mainland consumers will "eat" about 1.4 million tons of durian in 2023.
For a long time, our country has not developed durian to meet the taste of the public, and the consumption of durian has always been imported from countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. After all, durians grown in those tropical countries are not only mellow in taste, but also in good quality.
In 2010, China's durian imports amounted to less than US$150 million. By 2019, durian surpassed cherries and became the first domestic fruit importer with an import volume of 604,500 tons and an import value of 1.604 billion US dollars.
According to 2021 data, the global durian production is 3.8491 million tons, accounting for 21.3% of the total global production in terms of China's imports that year. One out of every five durians in the world is eaten in China.
Domestic durian breaks the dependence on imports, and Vietnam and Thailand make a difficulty: who is the high-priced durian sold to?
It is precisely because of this rising demand that countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have pushed for durian prices to continue to rise.
According to China Customs data, the unit price of durian imports climbed from 11.8 yuan/kg in 2015 to 33.1 yuan/kg in 2021, a three-fold increase in six years.
Previously, during the Spring Festival, Golden Pillow durian was sold for 45 yuan ~ 50 yuan / catty, and it was sold for 50 ~ 60 yuan / jin when it was expensive. As a result, it is difficult for everyone to eat.
However, one of the characteristics of the Chinese market is that once a product has a huge market demand and is too dependent on foreign products, and when the external products are high and the price is not controlled, once these three are met, there will be a domestic incentive for independent research and development.
This kind of thing is no exception in fruit farming. As early as the 50s of the last century, the Chinese people have carried out research on the durian variety, and later the Chinese people brought back durian seeds from Southeast Asia and wanted to try to plant them in China.
But when the tree grows, it just doesn't bear fruit, because durian is a plant that needs to grow in tropical climates, and the genetic background is very complex, and our mainland farmers have very little understanding of this fruit, which also leads to the local durian cultivation has not been successful for a long time.
In 2014, a turning point came when a planting base in Hainan introduced more than 40 grafted durian trees from Vietnam through grafting technology, and in the fourth year, these more than 40 durian trees actually blossomed and bore fruit. In 2019, the 60-year-old durian tree in the Baoting Tropical Crops Research Institute in Hainan Province also unexpectedly began to bear fruit, which indicates that the durian industry has ushered in an inflection point.
The team of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences used efficient grafting technology to find 44 exotic durian tree species again, and carried out fine breeding from seedling grafting, to soil quality, irrigation, sunshine and other links, so that the survival rate of durian seedlings jumped to 98%, and the technological innovation achieved remarkable results.
Therefore, with the help of technological research, China has created tens of thousands of acres of large-scale planting bases, many durian trees have also bloomed, and many unique durian varieties such as "Red Flesh Musang King" have also been cultivated.
Thanks to the efforts of researchers, this noble fruit has now been transformed into a popular seasonal fruit.
There are also many experts who estimate that by 2025, our own durian production in China may exceed 1 million tons, and this breakthrough progress has completely broken the situation that we have been subject to durian imports for a long time. Similar to the price of Golden Pillow Durian from the past 40~50 yuan a catty, Golden Pillow Durian fell below the 30 yuan/kg mark, and the whole durian only needs about 100 yuan. Nowadays, you can buy it for about 20 yuan a catty.
And this success has also made Thailand and Vietnam anxious, realizing that China is no longer paying for Thailand's high-priced durian. Thai durian is starting a price reduction strategy, according to Guangming Daily, Thailand Golden Pillow durian was just listed, the wholesale price reached more than 50 yuan per catty. A durian of more than 5 catties cost nearly 300 yuan to buy, and now the price has fallen by half.
Durian freedom is coming, and Taiyue is full of desire to survive
According to the data, with the gradual surge in the production of our country's own durian, the export volume of Thai durian has gradually decreased since 2019, and in the first half of this year, the export volume of Thai durian was only 100,000 tons, a decrease of about 30% compared with the past.
If domestic production increases significantly, I am afraid that the competitiveness of Thailand's imported durian will be further reduced. At present, Thailand has begun to worry. In the past, in order to make more money in China's high-priced market, Thai durians were picked and shipped to the mainland before they were even ripe.
The price of Musang King durian, which used to be shelled and frozen, ranged from about 90 yuan per catty, but now it has been rolled up to 20~30 yuan a catty in some fruit markets, piled up into a hill.
In the face of China's success, these durian-producing countries are making changes, including cutting prices, opening up emerging markets, avoiding over-dependence on the Chinese market in a timely manner, and opening up neighboring countries such as Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
After all, with the increase in domestic durian planting area and production, China no longer pays for high-priced durians, and Thailand and Vietnam's revenues of more than $4.2 billion in the past year may be difficult to maintain, and they will face the dilemma of unsalable durians. In recent years, fruit farmers in Thailand, Vietnam and other places have been hybridizing durian varieties, and the yield of new varieties has increased at the same time, and the proportion of small and secondary fruits is also increasing, in order to achieve price competitiveness.
Epilogue:
Durian is not a rigid need of people, but Chinese people love to eat durian, even if the price is high, the demand is increasing year by year. Therefore, the huge market demand gave birth to the motivation for a breakthrough in planting technology, and finally under the breakthrough of technology, the independence of durian planting was realized, and the high-priced coat of imported durian was torn off.
Market demand is the most powerful driving force for technological breakthroughs. If Chinese people don't like to eat durian at all, there may be no motivation to study durian cultivation in China. If Taiyue durian has been sold at a low price, there is no motivation to break through in China. From this point of view, Taiyue durian swallows the fruits of high price harvesting.
Therefore, the market is the first, market demand will give rise to huge business opportunities, will drive more forces to research and development breakthroughs, once the dependence on imports is broken, the scale of independent industry is formed, the quality is guaranteed, driven by huge profits, can form independent products to replace part of the import pattern, and will eventually benefit more people, this is the original intention and motivation of domestic efforts to break the monopoly price and market abroad, which is still applicable in other fields, but sooner or later.
Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission