Jakarta. The government is hoping that China will soon give its green light for Indonesian durians to enter the Chinese market.

China is a big buyer of the fruit known for its distinctive odor, and Jakarta sees this as a huge business opportunity. Over the past few years, the Indonesian government has been trying to convince China that its durian is eligible for export. Today, Indonesia is waiting for China to issue a protocol that will let Jakarta export the so-called “king of fruits”. Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi also tried to secure the durian export protocol from her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during their bilateral talks in Beijing on Friday.  

“To boost our exports to China, Indonesia pushed for the negotiations on frozen durian and coconut export protocols to be completed soon,” Retno said in a recorded statement, as she updated the press on the outcome of the meeting.

She added: “We believe that once we have finished negotiating those protocols, we will be able to boost bilateral trade.”

The diplomat did not go into details about the durian protocols.

According to the state-run news agency Antara, in April, the National Quarantine Agency (Barantin) was in talks with China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) regarding durian exports. Barantin’s chief Sahat M Panggabean said at the time that China had approved market access for Indonesian durian in 2023 -- years after Jakarta submitted a proposal for the export in 2020. GACC is set to hold an on-site inspection of the plantations and packaging facilities afterward. Once the protocol is out, Indonesia should be able to export its durians to China. 

China is a huge consumer of durians. The country imported 1.4 million tons of durians throughout 2023. Thailand made up 68 percent of China’s durian imports last year, Bangkok Post wrote. Just a few months ago, senior minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed that exports of durians to China could give a major boost to the local economy. 

“China imports between $7-8 billion worth of durians. So imagine … if a regency exports $100 million worth of durians to China, that is about Rp 1.5 trillion every year,” Luhut said in June.

Retno also spoke of how Indonesia managed to record a positive trade balance with China in 2023 after years of deficits in the recent talks with Wang Yi.

According to the Trade Ministry, Indonesia finally had a positive trade balance with China in 2023 with a surplus amounting to $2 billion. For comparison, the deficit with China hit almost $7.9 billion in 2020 before it improved to around $2.5 billion in 2021 and neared $1.9 billion the following year. However, Indonesia will likely be back to suffering a negative trade balance with China this year. In the first half of 2024, Indonesia’s deficit with China stood at $4.9 billion. This marked quite a steep decline from the $837 million surplus booked in the same period last year.