E-commerce helps boost China-Thailand trade: experts

Cross-border e-commerce whets the appetite of millions of Chinese consumers for Thailand’s fresh fruits, including “Monthong” durian, which is not easy to find in the Chinese market when cross-border e-commerce didn’t rise between China and Thailand, according to an article run by Xinhua news agency.
Hanoi (VNA) - Cross-border e-commerce whets the appetite of millions of Chinese consumers for Thailand’s fresh fruits, including “Monthong” durian, which is not easy to find in the Chinese market when cross-border e-commerce didn’t rise between China and Thailand, according to an article run by Xinhua news agency.

The article noted that things changed in April 2018 when Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba signed a 428 million USD deal on durian fruit sales with the Thai government.

Under the deal, the China-based e-commerce operator agreed with Thailand to work together in a number of areas, including e-commerce, digital logistics and training. The agreement paved the way for the speedy delivery of Thai products like durian to China.

Within 60 seconds on T-mall, a Chinese online shopping website operated by Alibaba, in April 2018, Chinese consumers ordered 80,000 “Monthong” durians, which means “golden pillow” in Thai.

Following the 2018 deal, Alibaba invested to build a logistics and storage hub in Thailand. Cainiao, the logistics arm under Alibaba, can now deliver fresh “golden pillow” durians to China within five days. Durian lovers in major cities across China can now taste fresh durians without leaving their homes.

Wan Lin, the president of Cainiao, said the company is working to further speed up the export process of durians and other Thai products to China from 120 hours to 72 hours.

“We are trying to help more quality Thai goods reach Chinese consumers quickly, and make it easier for Thai small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and agricultural producers to participate in China-ASEAN trade,” Wan was quoted as saying.

China has become one of the main target export markets for Thai agricultural products. In the first three quarters of 2019, the amount of fruits that China has imported from Thailand increased around 90 percent from the same period last year.

With the booming cross-border e-commerce trade between China and Thailand, the total bilateral trade volume reached 87.52 billion USD in 2018, a 9.2 percent year-on-year increase, according to China’s statistics.

In 2018, China was Thailand’s biggest trade partner and Thailand was China’s third largest trade partner among ASEAN countries./.
VNA

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