TMTPOST -- The “2026 Thailand Fruit Festival” opened at the Shouheng Gaobeidian International Agricultural Products Trading Center in Beijing on Monday. As of the opening day, Thai fruit trading volume inside the market had already surpassed 100 million yuan.

Co-hosted by the Agricultural Affairs Office of the Thai Embassy in China and Shouheng Group, the event was both a major industry gathering for Thai fruit to expand into Northern China in a concentrated push and a window into the upgrading of China’s imported agricultural product distribution system and the deepening of China–Thailand agricultural trade. 

During the event, a series of cooperation initiatives with tangible industry value were rolled out in parallel. The Agricultural Affairs Office of the Royal Thai Embassy in China and Shouheng Group signed a cooperation agreement and jointly unveiled the “Thailand Agricultural Products Trade Service Center”; the Shouheng market was awarded the title of “Kingdom of Thailand Fruit Honor Promotion Market,” and 13 in-market merchants were recognized as “Thailand Fruit Selected Partners.” Several leading Thai exporters also signed agreements on-site with Shouheng merchants, further opening up direct supply-to-demand distribution channels.

As one of China’s most important agricultural trade partners, Thailand has ranked as China’s largest source of imported fruit for many consecutive years.

Data from the General Administration of Customs of China showed that in 2025, China–Thailand bilateral trade reached RMB 1,096.648 billion, up 15.09% year on year, surpassing the one-trillion-yuan mark for the first time.

Fruit trade has been the key growth engine within bilateral commerce. In 2025, Thai fruit accounted for more than 30% of China’s imported fruit market, with import value exceeding RMB 43.2 billion. To date, 22 Thai fruit varieties have been approved for entry into the Chinese market, the highest number among all countries worldwide.

Lu Fangxiao, president of the China Fruit Marketing Association, noted that China–Thailand fruit trade is highly complementary: Thailand exports tropical fruits such as durian and young green mangosteen to China, while China exports temperate fruits such as apples, citrus, and pears to Thailand—resulting in a strong alignment between supply and demand on both sides.

As consumption continues to upgrade across China, demand for high-quality, distinctive imported fruit has kept expanding—laying a solid demand foundation for Thai fruit to deepen its presence in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, the Shouheng Gaobeidian Market, as a core distribution hub in northern China, is becoming a key corridor for Thai fruit to reach the “Three Norths” regions—North China, Northwest China, and Northeast China.

From an industry-structure perspective, the circulation of imported tropical fruit in the past relied heavily on southern ports. Fruit was typically transshipped through Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other gateways before being distributed nationwide. Northern markets had to endure multiple rounds of markups, and long-standing pain points included high retail prices, significant circulation losses, and insufficient freshness of the fruit.

The rise of the Shouheng Gaobeidian Market is reshaping this distribution landscape. As a trading platform that ranked No. 1 on the national Top 100 agricultural wholesale markets list for three consecutive years, it has now become the largest agricultural products distribution center in northern China, covering 13 northern provinces and serving more than 400 million people—taking on the role of a key hub for imported fruit moving north.

Cold Chain, Direct Sourcing, and Digitalization

That Shouheng has become a crucial node for Thai fruit entering northern markets is the result of years of concentrated investment in infrastructure and supply-chain systems now coming into full effect.

Wu Yan, Executive Vice President of Shouheng Group, said the market has built a cold-storage cluster with a total capacity of 3.2 million cubic meters—the largest of its kind in northern China—providing robust infrastructure to support end-to-end freshness preservation for imported fruit. It has also developed a “1+4” digital supply-chain platform centered on a command-and-dispatch center, enabling the integration of four networks—commercial, ground logistics, financial, and satellite/air—so that data such as inspection reports, price trends, and logistics updates can be displayed in real time, helping merchants accurately track market movements and optimize operating decisions.

In terms of supply-chain buildout, the market is now connected to more than 50 countries and regions worldwide, and domestically it covers nearly 6 million mu of planting bases across more than 2,000 counties—forming a full-chain circulation ecosystem from origin to end consumer. Wu Yan summarized this as a strategic direction of “buying globally and selling nationwide.”

As early as 2023, Shouheng signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Thai Durian Association. In March 2026, the company’s senior management team visited Thailand for an on-site study tour, calling on leading production plants and engaging with senior officials at Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture. This fruit festival is a concentrated rollout of the results from that earlier cooperation.

Frontline practitioners’ experience is even more convincing. Zhao Chao, head of the North China region at Thailand’s KPY International Trading Co., Ltd., said candidly that Shouheng has opened up an efficient link from origin to end market, substantially reducing circulation costs and cargo losses, enabling Thai fresh fruit to reach North China and Northeast China quickly. Since moving into Shouheng, the company has doubled its sales scale, while both its channel reach and market recognition have risen in tandem.

For downstream retailers, the hub’s value shows up most directly in two areas: quality control and cost. Yang Yi, fresh produce procurement manager at BHG Premium Supermarket in Beijing, said that after partnering with Shouheng, Thai fruit has been kept in a constant-temperature cold chain throughout the entire journey—from harvesting at origin, to port clearance, to pre-cooling and packing, and then straight to the market. This has reduced losses caused by multiple transfers, significantly improving both freshness and shelf life. At the same time, the direct-from-origin sourcing model has eliminated markups added by multiple layers of middlemen, making procurement costs more predictable and giving retail pricing stronger competitiveness.

Shen Yong, procurement director at Beijing Xinlongjia Supermarket, also noted that Shouheng has moved quality control upstream to the production end: picking and grading, as well as pesticide-residue testing, are completed at the source, and goods are then subject to a second round of spot checks after entering storage—ensuring quality across the full chain. Meanwhile, Shouheng has integrated end-to-end resources such as customs clearance, cold-chain logistics, and regional distribution, so buyers no longer need to coordinate with multiple service providers, greatly improving operating efficiency.

Growth figures from on-site merchants are even more straightforward. Liu Baofeng, head of Xiaobaoge Trading, which has been in the durian business for more than 20 years, told the author that the company’s total sales last year reached RMB 2 billion, with durian accounting for 50% of that. The company has also expanded into multiple categories of imported fruit, including cherries, mangosteen, and rambutan. This year, thanks to a bumper Thai durian harvest, improved quality, and more efficient circulation, the company expects full-year durian sales volume to rise 20%–30% year over year. The company currently moves about 15 containers per day on average, and its full-year transaction volume is expected to reach around 2,100–2,200 containers.

He added that transport options now include a rail intermodal model, customs clearance timelines have been improving year by year, and the company plans to promote direct sea shipping to northern ports such as Tianjin and Caofeidian in the future, further shortening transport distances and reducing logistics costs.

Behind Falling Durian Prices

Another hot topic that drew market attention at this year’s fruit festival was the continued decline in end-market durian prices.

Wu Yan said the drop in durian prices is the combined result of multiple factors. On the supply side, Thailand’s durian planting area has continued to expand, and Laos has also begun large-scale commercial cultivation, significantly boosting global durian capacity. On the circulation side, Shouheng has opened up direct-from-origin procurement and multimodal land-sea-rail transport routes, cutting out multiple layers of middlemen and squeezing the markup costs embedded in midstream circulation.

From a long-term perspective, durian prices are still likely to keep trending downward, making it quite possible that consumers will achieve “durian freedom.”

From an industry perspective, falling durian prices are an inevitable result of the restructuring of the imported-fruit circulation system. Under the old model of multi-layer distribution for tropical fruit, markups in intermediate links accounted for an exceptionally large share of the final retail price. The “direct-from-origin sourcing + regional hub” model, in essence, replaces fragmented, multi-tier distribution with a scaled, centralized circulation system—trading efficiency gains for cost headroom.

This shift will not be limited to durians; it is expected to gradually be replicated across more categories of imported fruit in the future.

Beyond transaction volume, Shouheng has a longer-term industry strategy. Wu Yan revealed that the company has three plans for the future: first, moving closer to production origins by setting up overseas bases in major fruit-producing countries, going deeper upstream to secure supply sources and enforce quality-control standards; second, building a full value-chain ecosystem, evolving from single-point trade partnerships to deeper industrial collaboration; third, enabling the business through digitalization, using an integrated supply-chain platform to boost end-to-end operational efficiency across the entire chain.

This approach also means that traditional agricultural wholesale markets are transforming from “rent-collecting” trading venues into full value-chain service providers—extending upstream into origin-side cultivation and quality control, and penetrating downstream into terminal distribution and services, reshaping industry rules with infrastructure and digital capabilities.

Overall, this Thailand Fruit Festival was a microcosm of the deepening China–Thailand agricultural trade, and a landmark event signaling the upgrade of northern China’s imported-fruit circulation landscape. As trade channels continue to run smoothly and circulation efficiency keeps improving, Thai fruit’s market penetration is set to rise further, and consumers will be able to buy higher-quality fresh fruit at more affordable prices.