Thai farmers become millionaires thanks to China’s appetite for durian

Apichet Chitfour quit his factory technician job 29 years ago to invest in a durian business with his spouse, Kanjana, a fruit seller. Their risky bet paid off as the fruit's profit potential skyrocketed along with demand from China. The couple now runs one of Thailand's biggest durian packaging firms, Rachadurian Company.

"I never thought I would get to this level. Earlier, when we did wholesale, we got anywhere between 100 to 5,000 baht (US$2.7-138) a day. When we moved to a bigger market, we were making up to 100,000 baht. Now, having created our own export business, we are earning not just millions but hundreds of millions of Baht," Apichet told Thai newspaper The Nation.

Their company exported over $2.7 million worth of durians in one year during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As Chinese demand for the smelly fruit soars, Thailand has been the country's top supplier. China imported 202,500 tons of fresh durian in the first four months of 2024, 60% of which were from Thailand, according to customs data.

The Southeast Asian nation has significantly scaled up its durian production in the last decade. Its durian output rose by 180% in the last 12 years to 1.4 million tons last year, while the area under cultivation increased by 80%, Thai news outlet Khaosod English reported.

Thailand's durian exports to China surged to $3.75 billion last year, according to Thai government data referenced by Xinhua. This marked a major leap from the $128 million seen in 2012, statistics from the United Nations Comtrade database show.

So far this year, Thailand has exported up to $2.4 billion worth of durians to China, up 3-4% year-on-year. Thai exporters are hopeful that this figure will continue to increase over the next half-decade as durians reach secondary Chinese cities and more consumers acquire a taste for the pungent fruit.

In anticipation of growing demand, Apichet and Kanjana have built relationships with farmers across the country, ensuring they can export seasonal fruit year-round.

Despite fierce competition from other top suppliers, Thai farmers are confident in the taste and texture of their durians, which took years of experience to cultivate.

For those in the Thai durian industry, their dreams are just starting to come to fruition.

Meanwhile, China’s craving for the stinky fruit has also changed farmers’ lives in other top suppliers like Vietnam, which held a 39.2% market share in the first four months of this year.

Dak Lak Province’s Cu M’gar District, which has over 5,000 hectares under the stinky fruit, has seen many of its farmers rise from rags to riches, as reported by Vietnamese newspaper Nguoi Lao Dong.

Do Viet Hung’s 10-hectare durian orchard in the district’s Ea Tar Commune has entered its third year of harvest. It produced over 300 tons of fruit in the previous harvest, netting him a profit of VND21 billion (US$827,000).

Thai Thi Anh Hoa, vice chair of the Ea Tar People’s Committee, noted that there has been a shift from crops with lower value like rubber to the smelly fruit.

"Durian is fetching good prices this year, greatly improving the lives of farmers [here]," she said.