Yang Jinying, a journalist with extreme eyes.
"Click — —” With the crisp crackling sound, recently, in the durian planting base of Yucai Ecological Zone in Sanya, Hainan, more than 1,000 mu of durian naturally fell off after ripening on the tree, and the domestic durian ushered in the first listing.
On July 26th, the relevant person in charge of the agricultural company involved in the large-scale planting of durian in Hainan introduced to Jimu journalist that the price of this batch of mature durian is 60 yuan per catty, which will be sold to offline tasting shops in first-tier cities for consumers to "try early" in addition to the local market in Hainan. Compared with imported durian, the quality of domestic durian is superior. Considering the planting cost and other factors, the price will not drop in the short term, but it will affect the price of imported durian.
Durian ushered in harvest in Hainan (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Domestic durian tastes better.
As a tropical fruit, durian has very strict growth conditions, and there are few areas suitable for planting in China. According to relevant experts, in fact, durian was introduced and planted in Hainan as early as the 1950s, but at that time, the number of introduced seedlings was very small and the survival rate was extremely low, so the industry thought that China was not suitable for planting durian.
Durian for domestic consumption mainly depends on imports. According to the data in 2022, the total number of imported durians is as high as 825,000 tons, of which 780,000 tons are imported from Thailand, and the other 45,000 tons are imported from Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam.
In order to break the curse that "durian can’t be planted in China", in the first decade of the 21st century, Hainan people continued to explore local durian cultivation. In recent years, durian trees planted in front of and behind local residents’ houses showed individual results.
In 2019, Hongxiang Agricultural Group Co., Ltd. began to open a large-scale durian planting plate in Hainan. In the past four years, the company has laid out 12,000 mu of durian planting area in Hainan, including 7,000 mu in Sanya Yucai Ecological Zone, of which 1,400 mu is expected to be listed before the end of July.
What are the advantages of domestic durian compared with imported durian? Du Baizhong, general manager of Hongxiang Agriculture, said that the imported durian is destined to be picked when it is only 78% mature or even 6% mature, and then it will enter the domestic market after artificial ripening; On the other hand, frozen durian is transported by cold chain, and quick freezing with liquid nitrogen will destroy its fruit aroma. In any case, the taste of imported durian is easily damaged, and it is difficult to guarantee the quality by artificial ripening. Buying durian is often like "opening a blind box".
In contrast, domestic durian can fall naturally after "ripening on the tree", and it has more advantages in quality. Du Baizhong said, "The smell of ripe durian is not strong, and it is dried with yellow meat and tastes more delicious."
Durian planting base in Sanya (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
The price will not fall in the short term.
The first batch of domestic durians will be on the market soon, and the question that durian lovers are most concerned about is, "Can this be achieved ‘ Durian Freedom ’ " . Ms. Mai, a citizen of Guangzhou, told the reporter that she had eaten durian eight or nine times this year, and the quality was different, but she felt that the price fluctuated greatly and it was much more expensive than in previous years.
However, relevant experts said in an interview with the media that the domestic durian has not yet formed a large-scale commercial planting, and the price will not be significantly lowered in the short term. The domestic demand for durian will still rely on a large number of imports for a long time.
Du Baizhong expressed similar opinions to reporters. He introduced that the first batch of domestic durians to be listed this year has a total of dozens of tons, and the cultivation process is very difficult.
"When planting was first developed, the survival rate of durian trees was very low." Du Baizhong said, "We consulted a large number of experts and cooperated with relevant agricultural research institutions in Hainan Province. Until 2021, the technology became mature and the durian survival rate increased from about 60% to 97%-98%."
Therefore, considering the planting cost and the limited output of the first batch, the price of this batch of mature durian is 60 yuan per catty, which will be sold to offline tasting shops in first-tier cities for consumers to "taste early" in addition to the local market in Hainan. Du Baizhong introduced that this pricing is slightly lower than the high-quality durian that is 85% cooked in Thailand and transported to China, but the quality of domestic durian is far better than that of imported durian.
However, Du Baizhong also said that by next year, the domestic durian production will be several times, and the price should be reduced. At the same time, with the expansion of large-scale planting of high-quality durian in China, it is believed that the price of imported durian can be "knocked down".