Close in taste and price with those from neighboring Southeast Asian nations, Philippine durians can compete with the Malaysian and Thai variants in the Chinese market, officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

“Ours is better and has a taste close to the Malaysian durian but is cheaper. In that case, we have the advantage and competitive edge,” said Ana Abejuela, the Philippines’ agriculture counsellor here.

Citing initial market feedback, she said the Filipino variant is also at par with the Thai durian and the first shipment from Davao last April got a “fantastic response” from Chinese nationals.

“[T]hey love it, they love durian and in fact, because this is the small season, not the main season of durian so we only have a trial shipment to test the market and there was a fantastic response,” she said.

The Philippines is also hoping to export frozen durians and catch up with Malaysia that currently ships frozen Musang King durians, the most expensive in China.

The Philippines began exporting fresh durian to China in the first week of April immediately after the approval of the export permit.

This follows President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s state visit to China in January, which resulted in the signing of a USD2 billion fruit export to step up imports of high-value agricultural products from the Philippines.

Abejuela is optimistic Manila would be able to boost export to China as both countries work on a stronger agriculture cooperation.

She then highlighted the prospects of tapping the Chinese market as the world’s second largest economy and for its 1.4 billion population.

“We hope we can meet the market demand of China. Our marching orders from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to increase export to the world not just in China. We have to work on it, anything that is good we have to work on it,” she said.

The official is hopeful the issue of supply would be resolved soon as the main harvest season for durian approaches.

Durian season starts in the middle of July and until the end of October.

Abejuela said the initial shipment of durian and those that followed are part of the country’s 2023 durian export target of USD260 million, which Manila hopes to increase by 2024.

The first shipment of 18 metric tons of Filipino durian landed in Nanning, China and was brought to Beijing and the Gaobeidian Sunhola market in the northern Chinese province Hebei.

Some shipments were also brought to Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province as well as Shenzhen in Guandong Province.

Abejuela said the chartered air cargo shipment weighing 18 to 28 tons arrives in China almost every other day.

Dole Philippines also ferried one container to Shanghai to try shipping via freighter.

“Such is the launch for Dole as the latest fresh Philippine product,” she said.

The Philippines’ durian export negotiation started during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte as part of his initiative to bring more Davao fruits to China.

Mangosteen and pomelo exports are in the pipeline for export to China with the application still to be done.

Apart from durian, the Philippines ships fresh pineapple, solo papaya, cavendish bananas, mangoes and Hass avocado to China.

Abejuela said the Philippines is the only Asian country that exports hass variety of avocados to China as most of its imports come from Peru and Chile. (PNA)