Nattharinee Ruecha, a consultant for Changtoon Trading in Thailand, is looking forward to their next durian harvest, which will be their first commercial durian season ever: “This year, Monthong durian fruits will be harvested on April 15, 2023 in Chanthaburi, Rayong and Trat, as announced by the Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, other varieties will be harvested earlier; between March 10 and 20. In general, the harvest period is from April to May in Eastern Thailand and the most abundant yield period is from July to August in Southern Thailand.”
“In the past, Thailand only harvested durian fruits for four months in the year, but this later evolved to nine months. Presently, thanks to new knowledge and technology, Thailand is developing to be able to cultivate and harvest durians all year round. At our orchards in Changtoon in the Trat province we’ve decided to export during the common season and harvest period, in order to ensure that the features of the Monthong durian are maintained.”
Before embarking on this new export adventure, Ruecha did trial shipments of ten containers last year, to see how it would work to ship them directly from their own orchard: “Last year, we did trial orders, but we only did less than ten containers, in order to learn how to export directly from our own orchards to China. This year, we officially start with our durian export, with 25,000 durian trees and are expecting to have over 1,000 tons of durians from our own production shipped to global markets. Our orchards and packing houses are registered under our company name ‘Changtoon Trading Co., Ltd.’ and are located in Borai, Trat, Thailand.”
Now that the company has successfully completed the trials, Ruecha is looking forward to export the durians to a wide variety of markets, she explains: “We are looking for customers in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, USA and in the Middle East Region. Thai Monthong durian fruit still has its high demand in the global market, because the consumers know it already. Lately, we have followed durian news in each country, and we are still confident our product is of export standards’ quality. That said, if we compare with Vietnam, Malaysia, Laos and Philippines, we can’t compete with Vietnam for logistical reasons. The transit time for Vietnamese durian takes only two to three days, while durian from Thailand takes four to seven days to reach the destination.”
For more information:
Nattharinee Ruecha (Chris)
Changtoon Trading Co., Ltd.
Tel: +66 86 844 8608
Email: roadmapthaifarmers@gmail.com