Guangdong Province’s First Durian Orchard Is Fruiting

Young trees at a durian production base in southern China’s Guangdong province have begun to bear fruit — the first known example of successful commercial-scale durian cultivation in China outside of the tropical island province of Hainan.

Various durian varieties including Musang King and Black Thorn have been introduced at the 20-hectare durian plantation starting from 2018, according to a Chinese media report.

The production base is located in the city of Maoming in southwestern Guangdong. Maoming is already a major production area for subtropical fruit such as lychees and bananas.

The base currently has about 200,000 young durian trees planted, with the earliest plantings already beginning to flower and bear fruit, which are expected to be ready for harvesting in October. A representative from the base said that it hopes to expand in the future based on the successful trial results already observed.

Durians are China’s hottest fresh fruit import, leading all other fruits in terms of both volume and value. In 2021, fresh durian imports into China reached 822,000 metric tons and $4.21 billion, year-on-year increases of 42.7% and 82.4%, respectively. For the moment, Thailand is the only country authorized to export fresh durians to China, although both Vietnam and Cambodia are also pursuing market access, with the former reportedly in the home stretch of establishing phytosanitary protocols.

Previously, China’s only successful commercial-scale durian plantations were in Hainan, an island in the South China Sea situated further southwest from Guangdong. Durian plantations in Hainan have already exceeded 2,000 hectares and are primarily concentrated around the island’s southern end.

Image: Pixabay

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.