JAKARTA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- After an agreement last month between Indonesia and China regarding the export protocol for frozen durian, Indonesia's authentic durian now has the opportunity to expand its market to China.

"Indonesian durian has a great opportunity in the Chinese market, depending on how we can produce durian that can compete with durian from other countries," Eliza Mardian, a researcher at the Center of Reform on Economics Indonesia, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

China is the world's largest durian consumer. However, Indonesia has barely participated in the booming Chinese durian market.

According to data from Statistics Indonesia, out of nearly 2 million tons of Indonesian durian produced last year, only 27 tons were exported to China. In fact, from January to May 2025, no durian was exported to China, leaving Indonesia far behind Thailand and Vietnam.

Eliza said that the main obstacles to exporting durian from Indonesia to China were logistics and licensing issues. The long distance means that delivering fresh durian from Indonesia takes longer than from Thailand, which affects its quality.

However, now that Indonesia and China have signed the export protocol agreement, licensing will no longer pose a major hurdle. Under this protocol, the Indonesian Quarantine Agency becomes a trusted regulator recognized by Chinese authorities to ensure the food safety of frozen durian products to be exported to China.

Eliza encouraged the Indonesian government to provide various forms of support to farmers, including broad dissemination of export requirements, facilitation of plant health certification or phytosanitary measures, access to capital, and the development of logistics networks and adequate infrastructure, such as frozen storage warehouses.

The China-Indonesia durian export protocol agreement has also been warmly welcomed by local governments and industry players in Central Sulawesi Province, where durian is one of the region's key agricultural commodities.

As the main durian-producing area in the province, Parigi Moutong Regency currently has over 1,100 hectares of durian plantations with more than 110,000 trees, according to the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The regency also boasts 16 durian packaging houses that meet international standards, underscoring its readiness to enter the export market.

Governor of Central Sulawesi, Anwar Hafid, expressed his strong commitment to developing the local durian industry during a focus group discussion on June 4 about durian exports to China. He noted that the province is determined to harness its durian production potential to penetrate the Chinese market more seriously. ■