KUALA LUMPUR: Alibaba Group, a Chinese multinational conglomerate specializing in e-commerce and retail, today announced that Malaysia's popular Musang King Durian will be officially imported into China through its comprehensive online and offline channels.
The shipment will be in frozen whole fruit form for the first time for Chinese customers.
The breakthrough of Musang King Durian’s import into China came just in time for this year’s 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival, which seeks to empower brands and merchants to tap into China’s less-developed regions with 1.5 million new products and multiple promotional initiatives.
This year’s festival aims to engage customers in emerging cities, counties and villages across China.
To do so, Taobao and Tmall are boosting promotional resources to elevate excitement and help brands reach this rapidly growing market.
Altogether, over 200,000 brands and retailers will participate in the shopping event.
The move was made possible following the recent announcement by China’s customs authorities greenlight the imports of Malaysian durians in frozen whole fruit form into the country.
It also marks the continuing effort by the technology firm to help promote Malaysia’s agricultural products and empower the local SMEs via the first overseas Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub established in Malaysia in 2017.
Previously, only the pulp, paste and processed Musang King Durian could be imported into China due to quarantine restrictions.
The breakthrough was a result of concerted efforts made by the relevant Chinese and Malaysian government agencies to facilitate the import of the coveted fruit.
After several rounds of discussions, the strictest traceability and inspection measures will be adopted to ensure the products meet the highest export quality standards.
Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Sim Tze Tzin said Malaysia continues to facilitate the export and promotion of unique local products to the global market.
“The strong partnership between Malaysia and China has resulted in today’s durian export initiative and both governments have worked closely for months to facilitate the export of the frozen Musang King Durian in whole fruit form to China,” he said.