Agriculture to set standard for frozen durian

BANGKOK, Nov 26 (TNA) -- Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is planning to announce the standard requirements frozen durian, in preparation to launch the frozen king of fruit into the world market. Secretary-General of the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS) Ms Doojduan Sasanavin said that the recent meeting of the ACFS, which was presided over by Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Gen Chatchai Sarikulya, had agreed to enforce a regulated hygiene standard for frozen durian. The move came after the demand for frozen durian in the world market is showing signs of increasing, but the AFCS has received reports of under quality and bacteria contaminated frozen durian, whereas the frozen process of the fruit has no quality control in terms of hygiene and safety standards. She said the issue must be addressed immediately to prevent strong impact on the country's exports,as well as to create confidence of the high quality Thai frozen durian among international importers. Ms Doojduan said frozen durian is one of the most important Thai produce export, which is showing the tendency to increase every year. She reported that in 2015, Thailand had exported a total of 22,180 tonnes of frozen durian, worth a value of 1.944 billion baht, with the top 5 importers of the frozen king of fruit being China, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. (TNA)