Hoping for a profitable durian harvest

​(CTT-Dong Nai) – This year, the harvesting of durians in different regions is one to two months later comparing to previous years. Since many farmers decided to harvest late in the last two months, the price of durian were much more expensive than last year.​

Durian merchant harvests his crops in Binh Son commune, Long Thanh district

The overall crops yield is excellent despite starting late. As farmers begin harvesting their crops, the price of durian is lower than it was last month as the supply of it steadily increase, however farmers still have high hope for a profitable durian season

Merchants competing for supply

According to some local merchants, this year's durian season came later than previous years, and farmers also chose to spread their harvests evenly instead of just one big harvest like every year. As such, in the beginning of the season, the period when durian's price was high was short-lived, and only lasted for around two to three weeks. At this time last time, durian's price dropped to 30.000 to 35.000 VNĐ/kg, even when at its peak, the price only reached 60.000 to 70.000VNĐ/kg. On the other hand, a kilogram of durian when buying in a garden could reach up to 100.000VNĐ early in the season. After that, it still maintained its price at 70.000VNĐ to 80.000VNĐ/kg. As the time of writing, durian's price has dropped by 50% compared to its peak during earlier in the season, but it still remains higher than 50.000 for a kilogram which is still highly profitable for farmers.

Mr. Tran Anh Trung, a durian farmer in Binh An commune, Long Thanh district, excitedly shared that thanks to the garden handling technique allowing early harvest, he could harvest his 3-hectare garden as early as April. During that time, he could get up to 100.000VNĐ for a kilogram of durian. As of now, the price has dropped to around 50.000VNĐ/kg, however it is still higher comparing to this time last year. This year's yield is excellent, in turn bringing a lot of profit back to farmers than in the past.

Mrs. Dang Thi Thuy Nga, Directress of Xuan Dinh Agricultural Cooperative (Xuan Dinh commune, Xuan Loc district), said that ever since the beginning of the season, not only local merchants but also merchants from other provinces has come to Dong Nai to get their hands on the durian supply. They even want to pay for the entire garden up front for a price of 50.000VNĐ per kilogram, but many farmers still hesitate in hope of a price jump when China increase their durian import. As durian's price skyrocketed since the beginning of this year's season, farmers who own durian gardens earn a lot of profit.

Excellent Export Market

Durian was able to achieve better pricing due to the rising in demand for export. At the moment, China is the main importer of durian.

Mr. Mai Van Minh, a durian merchant in Long Thanh district, said that even though this year season was later, it was still to produce a better crop yield than the previous ones. Every year, only in the first 20 days did durian reach a profitable price as farmer begun harvesting their gardens, after that the price dropped sharply. As for this year, the season's beginning lasted for more than two months and farmers were still able to get the same price at last year's peak, at around 60.000VNĐ/kg. Every year, durians harvested early in the season were of low quality.  However, this year, the overall quality was higher, many gardens reported to have an excellent crop yields.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tam, a durian farmer in Xuan Thien commune, Thong Nhat district, happily said that her garden was able to put out high yielding fruit after fruit, and a merchant bought her entire garden for a price of 50.000VNĐ/kg during this season. Beside the higher yielding, farmers were able to get a better profit thanks to the lower amount of rejected durians compared to previous years.

According to some durian packaging facility, in recent weeks, Thailand also went through harvesting season, and begun to export these fruits to China in droves. This is the reason why our durian's domestic price dropped compared to the beginning of the season. However, currently the grade 1 durian's export price is still sitting at 55.000 to 57.000VNĐ/kg, 40.000 to 42.000VNĐ/kg for the grade 2. Meanwhile, durians failed to meet the export standards were sold domestically for only under 30.000VNĐ/kg. So if they want to have a better price, farmers have to pay extra attention to their gardens, and extreme care for their fruits as to improve the overall quality to meet the export standards.​​