Could Durian Prices Be the Next to Fall, After Coconut ?
By Longtunman
When the price of any agricultural product is good, farmers tend to rush to grow it. That eventually leads to oversupply and falling prices. This has been a long-standing problem in Thailand.
When rubber prices rose in line with market demand, farmers rushed to plant more rubber trees, until rubber flooded the market.
When aromatic coconuts became more expensive, supported by a major market like China, farmers also rushed to plant more, until aromatic coconuts flooded the market.
In the end, the prices of both products dropped sharply, following market forces.
As for durian, the planting area has continued to expand, while farm-gate prices have risen every year.
But in 2025, it became the first year that durian prices fell compared to 2024.
That leads to an interesting question: could lower durian prices become a repeat of what happened to rubber or aromatic coconuts ?
Longtunman will explain.
In the past, durian was considered a cheap fruit, and Thai farmers were not very interested in growing it. Farm-gate prices were only around 15-25 baht per kilogram during 1997-2007.
The period when durian started becoming the “king of fruits” was around 2012. A key reason was the arrival of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand and trying durian.
At the same time, major Chinese e-commerce companies such as Alibaba and JD.com were expanding into overseas markets, while also developing cold chain systems for storing fresh products.
This turned durian into one of Thailand’s flagship fruits. Durian wholesalers, or middlemen, started selling Thai durians through these e-commerce platforms.
Another reason was that around 2012, Thailand’s rubber prices started to decline, falling from over 100 baht per kilogram to only around 50 baht during 2014-2015.
As a result, farmers in southern and eastern Thailand began cutting down rubber trees
and planting durian instead, because they saw that durian could generate better income per rai and offered better prices.
If we compare the output of rubber and durian,
1 rai of rubber plantation produces around 220-250 kilograms of sheet rubber.
Meanwhile, 1 rai of durian orchard produces around 1,500-2,200 kilograms of durian.
So if rubber and durian were sold at the same price per kilogram,
durian would likely generate much higher income.
However, it must also be said that growing durian requires much higher upfront investment, and durian is a crop that needs very delicate care. Otherwise, it will not flower or bear fruit.
Farmers who want to switch to durian may face planting costs per rai that are up to 7 times higher than rubber.
And economic durian varieties such as Monthong and Chanee require 4-5 years of cultivation before they are mature enough to be harvested and sold to wholesale buyers.
The best durian-growing areas in Thailand are in the eastern provinces such as Chanthaburi, Trat, and Rayong, and in the southern provinces such as Chumphon and Surat Thani.
This is because the soil in these areas is sandy loam with good drainage, while the climate is humid with frequent rainfall, but still has a short dry season that allows the trees to produce large yields.
Later on, durian came to be seen as a hero product that Thailand could export and use to generate large amounts of income for the country.
Since 2018, the durian market in China has become far more feverish than before. There was even news that Thai durians set a record by selling 80,000 Monthong durians through Alibaba in just 1 minute.
Because of this, Monthong durian, once a cheap fruit priced at only 15-25 baht per kilogram during 1997-2007, rose to more than 70 baht per kilogram by 2017.
After that, export-grade Monthong durian for the main market, China, became more expensive every year.
If we look at the average import price of durian in China per kilogram, we can see that:
In 2017, China imported durian at an average of 45 baht per kilogram.
In 2018, the average import price was 61 baht per kilogram.
In 2019, the average import price was 69 baht per kilogram.
In 2020, the average import price was 106 baht per kilogram.
In 2021, the average import price was 125 baht per kilogram.
In 2022, the average import price was 133 baht per kilogram.
In 2023, the average import price was 142 baht per kilogram.
In 2024, the average import price was 157 baht per kilogram.
It is clear that from 2017 to 2024, farm-gate durian prices rose every year. That was because the Chinese market expanded very quickly.
During that time, Thai durian was considered a highly popular fruit with a very strong moat, because it was able to hold more than 50% market share in almost every province of China.
This made farmers who started planting durian from 2012 onward become the group that “invested in the right place, worked at the right time, and recovered their capital very quickly.”
Because if farmers had invested in Monthong durian during that period, they would have started harvesting in 2017-2024, which was exactly the era when durian prices kept rising year after year.
That is why, over the past 5 years, provinces with high durian export volumes, such as Chanthaburi and Chumphon, have ranked among the provinces with the highest per capita income in the country, even though they are not especially known for tourism or industry.
But in contrast, 2025 became the first year that durian prices fell. The export price to China dropped to 128 baht per kilogram, which was down 18.2% from 2024.
And in 2026, durian export prices per kilogram are expected to decline even further,
because Thailand’s durian output has increased and stocks cannot be cleared fast enough.
There are 2 main reasons behind falling durian prices.
Neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia are taking market share from Thailand.
Both countries have strengths that allow them to compete successfully against Thailand.
Take Vietnam, for example. It has the second-largest market share of durian in China after Thailand.
Its main advantage over Thailand is transportation time.
Because Vietnam shares a border with China, transportation by land and sea is easier and cheaper.
With lower logistics costs, Vietnamese durian has a greater chance of being sold to China at lower prices, and it has increasingly undercut Thai durian.
At present, there are at least 4 Chinese provinces where Thailand has already lost market share to Vietnam: Guangdong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Especially in Zhejiang Province, home to Hangzhou, where Alibaba is headquartered, Thailand lost the most market share to Vietnam, falling from 63.8% in 2024 to just 32.9% in 2025.
As for Malaysia, although it is farther from the key market of China, it does not focus on exporting large volumes to compete directly with Thailand and Vietnam.
Instead, Malaysian durian focuses on the premium segment and targets the high-end market with Musang King and Black Thorn durians.
These varieties are grown and harvested with more refined methods than Thai durian, allowing Malaysian durian to command prices up to 3 times higher than Thai durian and generate much higher profit margins for Malaysian farmers.
And these Musang King and Black Thorn durians are also targeting the luxury market in both Thailand and China.
Another issue is the growing influence of Chinese groups that dominate Thailand’s durian supply chain through nominee arrangements.
They have moved upstream by buying or securing long-term leases on durian orchards in key durian-producing provinces, in order to control both the quantity and quality of the harvest.
They also control and build networks of modern packing houses equipped with post-harvest technology and logistics systems directly connected to China.
This kind of closed trading ecosystem cuts Thai farmers off from true market pricing and weakens their bargaining power.
Beyond the issues mentioned above, over the past 5 years, Thailand’s durian planting area has also shown a clear upward trend every year.
In 2020, total planting area was 1.16 million rai, with 0.83 million rai already producing fruit.
In 2021, total planting area was 1.29 million rai, with 0.89 million rai already producing fruit.
In 2022, total planting area was 1.43 million rai, with 0.98 million rai already producing fruit.
In 2023, total planting area was 1.58 million rai, with 1.06 million rai already producing fruit.
In 2024, total planting area was 1.75 million rai, with 1.14 million rai already producing fruit.
This shows that total planting area surged by 50.8%, from 1.16 million rai to 1.75 million rai.
Meanwhile, fruit-producing area did not expand as fast. As a result, the gap between total planted area and fruit-producing area widened every year, from 0.33 million rai to 0.61 million rai, almost doubling.
This is consistent with forecasts suggesting that within the next 4-5 years, fruit-producing area could also reach 1.75 million rai, which would be 54% higher than the current fruit-producing area.
And that future output will also have to compete for market share with durian from other countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia.
If the durian market does not grow fast enough, or if consumer demand in China expands more slowly, this larger durian supply could push down prices per kilogram because the stock cannot be cleared quickly enough.
And it is possible that farmers who started planting durian more recently, especially after 2020, may face losses or take much longer to recover their investment.
This is therefore a major challenge for the Thai government: how to keep Thai durian as the famous king of fruits, so that it does not repeat the same story as other agricultural products whose prices once collapsed, leaving farmers unable to survive, such as rubber in the past or aromatic coconuts.