Cambodian Durian Exports to China Surge via New Laos Rail Corridor

Cambodian durian exports to China hit 5,738 metric tons in the first seven months of this year — nearly 40 times the total for all of 2025. On July 25, three containers of fresh Cambodian durians, carrying more than 50 metric tons of the fruit, made the journey to China via Laos, transloading onto the China–Laos railway partway through. Pechenda Fruit Production, the company behind the shipment, said that it plans to export a further 200 metric tons over the next two weeks.

Cambodia and Laos officially opened this new agricultural transit corridor on June 22, at a launch ceremony held at the Thanaleng Dry Port just outside Vientiane. The route lets Cambodian farm exports — including durians, bananas, mangos, rice, longans and cassava starch — travel overland into Laos before switching onto the China–Laos railway for the final leg into China, cutting delivery time to about a week, compared with 15 to 20 days by sea. Barely a month old, the route has already accounted for nearly 10% of Cambodia’s durian exports to China this year, and it is fast becoming a key channel for shipping fresh durians to the Chinese market.

This corridor is part of a much larger surge in cross-border fruit traffic. Railway authority data show that, as of July 27, over 184,000 metric tons of imported fruit had entered China via the China–Laos railway this year, up by 10.8% year on year. Durians represented the bulk of this, with more than 172,300 metric tons transported, up by 22.0% year on year. Multiple daily records were broken during the year, with the highest single-day volume of fruit entering the country reaching 3,941 metric tons.

This surge in supply is being felt directly by consumers: with Southeast Asian durians flooding into Yunnan during the peak summer season, wholesale prices at Kunming’s major fruit markets have dropped by roughly 30% compared with previous years. One local resident noted that durians are now selling for around 30 Chinese yuan ($4.45) per kilogram, with both supply and buyer demand running high.

Behind these lower prices and steadier supply is a major upgrade to the railway’s cold-chain capacity. On April 19, a new cold-chain train service began regular operation on the full Thailand–Laos–China route, running between Laem Chabang, Vientiane South and Wangjiaying West stations. It marks a shift for cross-border fruit transport in Southeast Asia into a standardized model, with fixed times, fixed stops and fixed volumes. This standardization has gone hand in hand with a broader cold-chain upgrade: railway operators have rolled out a new generation of long-haul temperature-controlled refrigerated containers that hold a steady temperature to within half a degree Celsius for the entire journey, and this tighter control has pushed spoilage rates down sharply — from over 15% previously to under 5% now.

After the goods arrive in Kunming, they go through the railway department’s green channel for fresh produce, completing vehicle unloading and container transfer within 90 minutes of arrival at the station. That speed is matched at the border crossing itself: at the Mohan rail port, customs and railway staff now use an advance-declaration system submitted prior to departure of the goods, feeding into a fast lane that prioritizes entry, inspection and testing — cutting clearance to as little as 8 minutes. From there, fresh durians travel on by combined road and rail transport, reaching more than 30 cities nationwide within 48 hours.

Image: Pexels

This article was based on a Chinese article. Read the original article.