Durian exports in 2023 earned nearly 2.3 billion USD, making it the most valuable fruit, but currently there is no standard harvesting process to ensure ripeness. When prices rise, gardeners and traders cut and sell young fruits, causing Vietnamese durian to lose its reputation in the import market many times.
If you cut them all at once, you will still have young durian
The problem of exported durians with immature fruit cut off, sour rice, and blemishes that emerged in September – October 2023, has recently continued to reoccur in the Japanese market.
Ms. LTK, Director of LLC Company, in Tokyo, Japan, said that in early March, this business signed a contract to buy 6 tons of peeled frozen durian from a business in Lam Dong province. When the exported goods passed, this enterprise had to liquidate and destroy nearly 2.5 tons. Japanese retail partners reported that durian was bland, had a sour taste, and some boxes were black like mold…
Also according to Ms. K. the business has signed a contract with a partner in Vietnam to buy grade B fresh fruit and put it into frozen segments. Normally for this product, the minimum sweetness index (brix) is 26%, but when checking the goods returned by customers, it was discovered that durian segments only reached 13 – 19% brix.
“This shipment caused us a loss of more than 300 million VND, but the bigger damage and loss is the business’s reputation with Japanese retailers when the product does not meet quality and must be fully recalled,” said Ms. K. said.
The story of exporting young durian is also a hot topic at the conference reporting the results of phase 1 (2020 – 2023), the Global Quality Standards Program (GQSP) to improve capacity to comply with quality standards. Vietnam’s export fruits, organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Institute of Agricultural Electromechanics and Post-harvest Technology (VIAEP), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in mid-April.
One of the findings pointed out by the VIAEP research team is that the durian market has the participation of an army of durian “triggers”, which are traders and purchasing agency owners. When the price of durian goes up, they ask the gardener to cut 1 or 2 knives to finish the garden, high risk including young fruit.
For large businesses, the process of controlling and determining the ripeness of durians relies on a team of “knockers”, who have a lot of experience selecting durians. During the main season, the harvest is too large, the “knockers” are overworked, and it is easy for young durians to fall through.
Mr. Nguyen Manh Hieu, Head of the Department of Agricultural and Food Preservation Technology, Institute of Agricultural Mechanics and Post-Harvest Technology (VIAEP), said that ripeness determines the quality of durian but the biggest problem in the fruit industry is This billion-dollar tree lacks standards for ripeness as well as methods for determining the ripeness of durian fruit to decide when to harvest. If harvested in the same way as now, “cut with 1 or 2 knives” at the same time, there will still be a mixture of old and young fruits.
“When there are no standards to determine the ripeness of durian fruit to serve as an arbiter of quality, it is difficult to determine whether or not the garden owner intentionally cuts and sells young fruit. Thus, there is no basis to punish or assign responsibility. Meanwhile, Thailand has its own set of rules and regulations to control and handle this behavior,” Mr. Hieu said.
Vietnamese durian only needs to learn one standard from Thailand!
Sharing the perspective of a business with many years of exporting durian, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, General Director of Vina T&T Company, said that the market demand for this fruit is very large. The problem is how to have a standard process for state management agencies to control quality. Although the export shipments of young and rotten durian fruits were recently discovered, although they did not account for a large proportion, they had a negative impact and adversely affected the image and quality of Vietnamese durian.
Also according to Mr. Tung, if exporting fresh fruit, depending on the requirements and transportation route, businesses and gardeners agree on the harvest time and calculate how to ensure that the fruit reaches the consumer when it reaches the consumer. ripe. As for frozen goods, the first standard is that they must reach ripeness before being put in for peeling.
“Thai durian quality control has been good for many years. They have specialized equipment to measure durian quality like we are checking alcohol content. Thai police use this device to check the quality of durian that does not meet standards and will be punished very seriously,” Mr. Tung said.
For fresh durian fruit, Vietnam has issued national standard TCVN 10739:2015. After many young durian crops exported to China and Japan, in October 2023, the Department of Crop Production issued Decision No. 362/QD-TT guiding temporary technical procedures for pruning flowers, fruits and harvesting durian. But businesses and experts say that these regulations cannot solve the problem of young durians.
Mr. Vu Duc Con, Chairman of the Dak Lak Durian Association, said that looking from Thailand, the Vietnamese durian industry only needs to learn from them in one standard. For exported durian, Thailand stipulates that it must reach a minimum dryness and this is the standard for the authorities to base on to conduct quality inspection.
Previously, Thailand regulated durian exports to reach 28-29% dryness, but when Vietnam increased exports, becoming a direct competitor to the Chinese market, they immediately raised the minimum dryness level. 32%. The management agency checks that this level of dryness is achieved before allowing the enterprise to export.
“I think we just need to learn them to control this one standard. Because when the durian fruit reaches the minimum dryness, the fruit must reach maturity and sweetness. Traders and garden owners will not dare to cut and sell young fruit,” Mr. Con said.
Mr. Nguyen Manh Hieu said that TCVN 10739:2015 only regulates the size and classification of fruits in general, not dividing into specific varieties. While durian includes many different varieties, ripening times also vary.
“In the period from now to 2026, VIAEP and UNIDO will continue to coordinate to review regulations and develop standard operating procedures in cultivating, harvesting, pre-processing, preserving and freezing durian to serve. export, the goal is to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of exports of this billion-dollar fruit industry in Vietnam,” Mr. Hieu said.
According to Phan Hau (Thanh Nien Magazine)
