The article noted that thingschanged in April 2018 when Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba signed a 428million USD deal on durian fruit sales with the Thai government.
Under the deal, theChina-based e-commerce operator agreed with Thailand to work together in anumber of areas, including e-commerce, digital logistics and training. Theagreement paved the way for the speedy delivery of Thai products like durian toChina.
Within 60 seconds onT-mall, a Chinese online shopping website operated by Alibaba, in April 2018,Chinese consumers ordered 80,000 “Monthong” durians, which means “goldenpillow” in Thai.
Following the 2018 deal,Alibaba invested to build a logistics and storage hub in Thailand. Cainiao, thelogistics arm under Alibaba, can now deliver fresh “golden pillow” durians toChina within five days. Durian lovers in major cities across China can nowtaste fresh durians without leaving their homes.
Wan Lin, the president ofCainiao, said the company is working to further speed up the export process ofdurians and other Thai products to China from 120 hours to 72 hours.
“We are trying to helpmore quality Thai goods reach Chinese consumers quickly, and make it easier forThai small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and agricultural producers toparticipate in China-ASEAN trade,” Wan was quoted as saying.
China has become one ofthe main target export markets for Thai agricultural products. In the firstthree quarters of 2019, the amount of fruits that China has imported fromThailand increased around 90 percent from the same period last year.
With the boomingcross-border e-commerce trade between China and Thailand, the total bilateraltrade volume reached 87.52 billion USD in 2018, a 9.2 percent year-on-yearincrease, according to China’s statistics.
In 2018, China wasThailand’s biggest trade partner and Thailand was China’s third largest tradepartner among ASEAN countries./.