CHINA locked down several cities in February when the Covid-19 pandemic was approaching its peak, causing massive disruptions to the supply chain of various products, including durian imported from Malaysia.

Now that the lockdowns have been lifted, China’s food and beverage industry is slowly recovering, but there is still a drop in demand for Musang King.

Malaysian durian exporters said Chinese enthusiasm for the thorny fruit is no longer the same, with demand for frozen durian pulp and frozen whole durian declining about 20%.

However, they told The Malaysian Insight, they are optimistic that the slump is temporary.

Nature Goodness managing director Lim Siang Sin said the F&B industry in China is just starting its road to recovery, and demand for the king of fruits is expected to increase in the spring.

“Importers in China are still contacting us for stock, even if it is reduced. We believe it will recover by June or July.”

Fama export division director Ser Tian Sin said demand from China remains steady overall despite the marginally drop currently.

Top Fruits Sdn Bhd managing director Tan Sue Sian, meanwhile, said the coronavirus outbreak in China started worsening in the Lunar New Year period, resulting in the lockdown of multiple cities.

He said exporters suspended shipments due to the accumulation of goods at Chinese ports, and things got worse when Malaysia enforced the movement-control order (MCO) in March.

“After the exports resumed, however, the volume of exported durian remains (the same).”

Dulai Fruits Enterprise managing director Eric Chan said his company managed to export 20 tonnes of frozen whole durian to virus ground zero Wuhan when the city was under lockdown by chartering flights, but after the MCO took effect, the goods could be sent only via shipment.

According to him, Chinese demand for durian has not fallen, and he is expecting to export some 2,000 tonnes of the fruit during the peak period this month.

He said consumers in China love the Musang King variety, which can fetch between 180 and 200 yuan (RM110 and RM120) per kg in frozen whole fruit form.

The biggest importer of Malaysian durian, however, is Singapore.

Asked if the republic’s Covid-19 “circuit breaker”, which came into force on April 7, has affected demand, Ser said Singapore is a traditional customer and remains a huge market.

He said Johor’s durian season began three weeks ago, while Pahang started this week. Given this, there is no need to worry about meeting overseas demand for the fruit.

He added that it is still too early to tell if durian exports will be affected in the long run.

Lim said 30% of Malaysia’s Musang King exports go to Singapore, and that the volume sent to Hong Kong is higher than China, with many people from neighbouring Guangzhou often visiting the financial hub to tuck into durian.

Even though Singapore has no durian orchards of its own, he said, it is now using durian to lure Chinese tourists.

He said Singaporean businesses are willing to import durian at a higher cost, and Malaysian suppliers are willing to sell.

Locally produced frozen whole durian arrived in China last June, with then agriculture minister Salahuddin Ayub presenting Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian with the first four tonnes of the product to be shipped to Shanghai.

Salahuddin had said the volume allotted to China accounted for only 5% of total exports, assuring that it would not affect supply for the domestic and other overseas markets.

Frozen durian pulp was first exported to China in May 2011. By 2018, frozen whole durian and pulp exports amounted to nearly RM9.5 million.

Due to the fruit’s popularity among tourists, Putrajaya then started promoting “durian tourism” to attract Chinese nationals.

Durian exports in 2018 grew 61.9% to 341,000 metric tonnes from 211,000 metric tonnes the previous year, becoming a major source of foreign exchange earnings. – June 3, 2020.