Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ahmad Maslan said the government was looking at exporting durians in the form of whole fruits as the durians that were currently being exported had been peeled and were in the form of cookies and durian-flavoured cakes.
“If you look at the top search in Alibaba.com by consumers from China, all matters regarding durian is the number one search in that portal.
“The Agro Based Ministry is actually in the midst of talks and we will soon know how we can export durians more easily,” he said during the Dewan Rakyat sitting here today.
Ahmad was replying to a supplementary question from Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP-Beruas) who wanted to know the extent of the government’s large-scale durian export system to facilitate cultivation of the fruit.
Earlier, replying to the original question from Othman Abdul (BN-Pendang), Ahmad said bilateral trade between Malaysia and China in the first nine months of this year reached RM212.94 billion compared to RM170.64 billion in the same period last year.
He said the total exports from January until September this year rose by 35.3% to RM91.87 billion while the total imports increased by 19.7% to RM121.08 billion.
Ahmad said, as of Dec 31 last year, a total of 220 manufacturing projects involving participation from China had been implemented with investments valued at RM14.2 billion and generating 33,020 job opportunities.
Singapore, Thailand jittery over Malaysian durian exports to China