The General Administration of Customs of China said on its website that Laos has been cleared to start shipping the fruit from last Friday, provided shipments comply with phytosanitary requirements, the South China Morning Post reported.
The decision followed high-level talks held last month, during which both countries agreed to open the Chinese market to Lao durians. The talks also led to the signing of a sanitary and phytosanitary protocol that allowed Laos to ship longans to China, as reported by the Laotian Times.
Durians seen at a farm of Vietnamese agriculture giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai in Laos. Photo by Read/Thi Ha |
China imported 15.6 million tonnes of durians worth US$6.99 billion last year, with Thailand and Vietnam supplying most of the shipments and the Philippines and Malaysia accounting for smaller shares.
With the approval, Laos joins the list of Southeast Asian countries entering the Chinese durian market this year, alongside Cambodia and Indonesia. Cambodia shipped its first batch of fresh durians in July while Indonesia has just started direct exports of frozen durians, sending its inaugural shipment on Monday.
Another regional peer, Myanmar, has announced plans to join the market in 2026 or 2027. Kyaw Min, chairman of the Myanmar Durian Producers and Exporters Association, told Xinhua News Agency last month that the registration process with China customs is underway.
Durians grown in Laos are expected to taste similar to those from Thailand and Vietnam as they share comparable rainfall patterns, according to Lim Chin Khee, an adviser at the Durian Academy, which specializes in training Malaysian growers.
Laos can ship its fruit in less than two days thanks to the China-Laos Railway, which opened in late 2021 and has since become a vital link connecting China with ASEAN. From January to Aug. 26 this year, it carried 150,000 tons of durian, a 91% increase from the previous year. Expanded cold-chain networks further enable Lao durians to reach more provinces and cities across China.
Laos has been stepping up efforts to improve both durian yields and quality since last year, when local media reported plans to export the fruit to China.
It has launched an initiative seeking to support farmers by offering stable employment and profit-sharing schemes, and to boost output while lowering costs by introducing scientific growing techniques.
Elavanh Latpakdee, founder of an association of durian farms in Laos, told the Lao News Agency last month that the association now includes 170 members overseeing over 20,000 hectares and 300,000 durian trees nationwide.
Some 10,000 of those trees have matured and are yielding an estimated 3,000 tons of fruit annually. Production is expected to rise to 24,300 tons worth more than US$155.5 million by 2029, he said.
Looking ahead, Laos aims to export 400 tons of premium durians next year, with China as the main market.
Rajiv Biswas, CEO of the Singapore-based research firm Asia-Pacific Economics, said: “The approval by China marks an important strengthening of Laotian access to the vast Chinese consumer market for agricultural products.”
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