May is the peak season for the ripening and sales of durian, the "king of fruits", and a large number of Thai durians enter the Chinese market. Consumers in many places were pleasantly surprised to find that the durian of 5 yuan / jin in early April, the price in many supermarkets has dropped to 4 yuan / jin, and a whole durian can be won for about 43 yuan. The price of durian has been reduced!

Durian is an imported fruit in the peak consumption season, why did the price fall?

It is understood that Thailand has more than 200 durian varieties, which is the country that exports the most fresh durian in the world, and it is also the country that allows the most imported fruit varieties in China. Thanks to the "express train" of the China-Laos Railway, the time for Thai durian to enter China has been greatly shortened. In the past, it took about 7 days for sea freight and 5 days for road transport, but now it only takes 3 days. According to Thai media reports, the "durian train" from Thailand's Madap Station to Guangzhou, China, has broken the record for the fastest time it takes to transport fruit from Thailand to China, and the probability of loss during transportation has also been significantly reduced. With the overall cost falling, it is logical that durian becomes cheaper.

According to Thailand's Ministry of Commerce, China accounted for more than 2022% of Thailand's total durian exports in 96. With the help of the China-Laos Railway, the export value of Thai durian is expected to reach a new high this year.

Not only durian, since April this year, mangosteen, longan, durian and other tropical fruits have been on the market in large quantities, and every day a special train of fruits enters through the China-Laos Railway and is sent to Kunming, Chengdu, Guangzhou and other major cities.

In December last year, the designated supervision site for imported fruits at the Yunnan Mohan Railway Port was completed and put into use, the China-Laos Railway officially had the capacity of full railway transportation of inbound fruits, and more and more Southeast Asian tropical fruits arrived in Kunming, Yunnan Province on the "Lancang-Mekong Express" international freight train of the China-Laos Railway. As of April 12 this year, the China-Laos Railway has transported 4,28 tons of imported fruits such as mangosteen and durian, enriching the domestic fruit market.

It is understood that this year's inbound tropical fruit transportation season will last until the end of June, and it is expected that the transportation volume of Southeast Asian specialty fruits such as durian, mangosteen, longan, and grapefruit is expected to achieve a year-on-year increase of more than 6%.

Tropical fruits have a short shelf life, how to ensure that Chinese consumers enjoy "mouth blessing"? China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. and Yunnan Mohan Railway Port jointly implement 24-hour pick-up, direct loading and unloading, fruit train arrival "unloading within 90 minutes, unloading 90 minutes after unloading", improve the operation efficiency of fruit train, timely realize the distribution and unpacking of fruits at the central station.

In addition to Yunnan Mohan Port, some Southeast Asian tropical fruits enter the Chinese market through Guangxi Pingxiang Port and Dongxing Port. In order to improve the transportation efficiency of imported fruits, China Railway Nanning Bureau Group Co., Ltd. launched the "8+1" unattended refrigerated car set: compared with the traditional cold chain transportation of traditional cross-border fresh goods, which is generally connected to electric cooling every 4 hours, the "8+1" train consists of 8 refrigerated containers and 1 power generation box, which can continuously supply and cool 8 containers for 300 hours, no longer limited by 4 hours of refrigeration. While ensuring the quality of fruits, it further compresses the customs clearance time and delivers fresh and delicious tropical fruits to the Chinese table.

Xu Peiyu (Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)

Xu Peiyu