With seasonal fruit about to hit the market, including durian, rambutan and mangosteen, the Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce has signed an agreement with CCIC Thailand to provide better traceability service for Thai fruit exported to China, following a new traceability requirement for all imported farm products into China.

With this agreement, CCIC Thailand as the local office of China’s largest quality assessment and traceability services provider, will help with legal procedures, as well as the requests for health and hygiene certificate, and compliances to additional regulations for certain fruit.

The Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce President Narongsak Puttapornmongkol said Thai fruit products have often been subjected to a lengthy customs clearance at China, however the new service provided by CICC Thailand will help shorten this process to no longer than three days, as product information can be traced back from a scan of a QR code. This streamlined process will be beneficial to Thailand’s export, especially fresh produce.

The export value of fruit products from Thailand to China in 2020 has grown by 39.43 percent at about US$2.9 billion, despite the impacts from Covid-19. The value of durian export alone last year is worth about US$1.5 billion, a whopping 77.57 percent growth. These major growths have been contributed by the services provided by CCIC Thailand, who in the last year helped process the export of durian, mangosteen, and longan worth about US$268 million to China. These services are expected to help increase the export of fresh fruit to China, albeit depending on the harvest volume.

The staggering numbers would no doubt incentivize infringers to put fake “From Thailand” labels on all fruits that are actually grown in China or elsewhere.

“Fake labeling on Thai fruits is reported by Chinese media and I didn’t realize before,” says Tong Wang, a client coordinator at LawPlus in Bangkok. “There already was news back in 2017 about a Chinese merchant using ‘Thailand Fruit’ labels on local fruits. Nowadays, if you search on Taobao and JD, the biggest online shopping platforms in China, you can find some stores that sell or custom make labels of ‘Thailand Fruit’ or create labels that ambiguously describe the origin of the produce.”