China Just Signed $27 Million in Durian Deals. Here's Why the Farmer at the Bottom of the Chain May Never See It (and How Orchard Visitors Change That)
The short answer: Two Davao exporters signed about US$27 million a year of durian supply deals with a Chinese e-commerce buyer. The reports give no volume and no price per kilo, so nobody can yet say how much reaches the grower. Last year's prices show why that matters: traders and buyers near the farm paid ₱25 to ₱110 a kilo, while city vendors asked ₱200 to ₱300. A farm that sells to visitors keeps that gap itself. |
On Monday, 13 July 2026, traders in Davao City loaded durian onto a truck bound for Tandag City, 300 kilometers (about 186 miles) away. They told MindaNews they had bought the fruit for a wholesale ₱25 a kilo in Calinan. In Surigao del Sur, they said, the same fruit could reach ₱100.
Same fruit. Four times the price. Whatever the grower got for it, it was not the ₱100.
Now a Chinese buyer has signed US$27 million in durian deals with Davao exporters. The headline is huge. The question nobody has answered is the one that decides whether a farmer pays the school fees this year: how much of it lands at the farm gate?
What was actually signed
According to the Department of Agriculture, as reported by NewsLine Philippines on 11 November 2026, both deals are with Somago (Tianjin) Cross-border E-commerce Co. Ltd., announced around the China International Import Expo.
Exporter | Value | Period | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|
Eng Seng Food Products | US$17 million a year | Nov 2026 to Nov 2027 | Can expand with market conditions. Does cultivation, processing and cold-chain exports, with partnerships involving about 2,000 farmers |
Maylong Enterprises Corp. | US$10 million a year (target) | Nov 2026 to Oct 2027 | Frozen durian procurement |
Assistant Secretary Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra said the government came to turn opportunities into "actual business partnerships."
Now read what the report does not give: no volume in kilos or tons, no price per kilo, and no farm-gate price. It says the real test is whether the deals bring better farm-gate prices, dependable purchasing and safer livelihoods, especially for small growers who must meet the buyer's quality, volume and delivery rules.
Reality Check: A deal value is an agreement between two companies. It is not a promise to anyone upstream. Until the price per kilo and the purchase schedule are public, "US$27 million" tells a grower nothing about next month's income. |
The price ladder: where the money sits
Here is what Davao durian has fetched at different steps. These are different months and varieties, and they come from news reports, not official statistics, so read them as a spread, not one clean chain. Dollar amounts use about ₱61 to US$1, the rate implied by a July 2026 shipment report.
Step | Price per kilo | Variety | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
Traders' wholesale buy, Calinan | ₱25 (about US$0.40) | Not stated | July 2026 |
Farm gate, local buyers | ₱35 (about US$0.57) | Arancillo | Oct 2025 |
Farm gate, Chinese buyers | ₱110 (about US$1.80) | Puyat | Oct 2025 |
Vendor price, Davao City | ₱200 to ₱250 | Other varieties | Aug 2025 |
Vendor price, Davao City | ₱250 to ₱300 (about US$4.10 to US$4.90) | Puyat | Aug 2025 |
Look at the two ends. In October 2025, a worker at one Davao farm told MindaNews that Chinese buyers paid ₱110 a kilo for Puyat at the gate. Two months earlier, vendors in the city asked ₱250 to ₱300 for the same variety, in a year when supply was short.
The grower is paid for growing. The seller at the end is paid for finding the customer, carrying, cutting, serving and standing there all day. Those are different jobs. But one of them is a margin you can take back.
Last year's headline versus last year's kilos
This is not the first big CIIE announcement. At the 2025 expo, three Davao durian exporters secured deals worth US$36.6 million, according to a Chinese Embassy statement reported by SunStar.
Then came the shipping data. By December 2025, MindaNews reported that exports to China had fallen to about 5 million kilos, from about 35 million the year before. The president of the Durian Exporters Association of the Philippines blamed production, not demand: May to July rains knocked the flowers off the trees.
That is three different numbers: the value signed, the kilos shipped, and the price the grower received. Only the last one pays the bills. And MindaNews reported that at least 98 percent of local output comes from backyard farms with fewer than 50 trees a hectare. Those growers do not sit across a table from a buyer in Shanghai. They take the price that arrives.
When the market floods, the grower pays
Demand can also turn against the people at the bottom. China's durian imports rose 47 percent in the first half of 2026, to about 1.07 million tonnes, according to South China Morning Post figures republished by UDLAP Observatorio Global. Wholesale prices in China fell 14 to 20 percent as Southeast Asian exporters moved a glut of fruit. That article framed the fall as pressure on growers.
When one channel gets crowded, the squeeze rolls downhill. The grower is at the bottom of the hill.
It is not just a durian problem
If you farm in the US, Canada or the UK, do not file this under "faraway news." The structure is the same.
USDA's Economic Research Service reports that in 2024, US farms received 11.8 cents of every dollar spent on domestically produced food. The other 88.2 cents paid for transport, processing and selling. On groceries alone, the farm share was 18.5 cents.
In the UK, Farmers Weekly reported on a study, Unpicking Food Prices, which found that farmers get little or even zero share of the profit on five British staples.
Different crops, same pattern: when a few big buyers set the price, the grower is the price taker. Our post on farm income diversification and commodity prices shows how the same squeeze hits grain farmers.
How orchard visitors change the math
A guest who sits down at your farm and eats your fruit pays a retail price. You keep the margin that would otherwise go to the trader, the exporter, the cold-chain operator and the retailer. That is the whole idea. Our post on the benefits of selling fresh produce directly to visitors walks through it, and you can also see food prices and farm direct sales.
It is small today. In the 2022 US Census of Agriculture, 116,617 farms sold directly to consumers, worth US$3.3 billion. Farms in agritourism and recreational services averaged US$44,004 a year in receipts. But only about 1.5 percent of US farms reported agritourism income and 6 percent reported direct sales, so most farms still sell to the middle. Averages hide the failures too. Treat them as a direction, not a forecast. Other farms show the pattern: read the Applecrest Farm Orchards case study, the pumpkin patch guide and the value-added dairy lesson.
I run durian farm tours at Bloopy Durians, the farm I founded in Bentong, Malaysia. A tour takes about an hour and a half. Guests plant a durian tree, ride up in a four-wheel-drive, walk among the bigger trees and see durians hanging on the branches. At the farmhouse they eat durian while I show them how to tell a good one, including old-tree and young-tree fruit, and they open one themselves. Visitors have come from all over the world, and many companies send their staff and management.
Guests who message me on WhatsApp join the farm's WhatsApp group. Many of them buy durians from me whenever we have them, which has become a reliable source of income. No trader sets that price. If you want to see how a tour is built, read how a 4WD adventure ride brought revenue to my durian farm, the farm tour business guide, how long your farm tour should be and how to host farm tours guests never forget.
Field-Tested Play: Run a small experiment this season. Set aside 10 percent of your crop. Offer it to visitors or to people you already know, at a fair retail price. Then compare what you net per kilo against your big buyer's price. Start with friends, family and neighbors before you chase strangers. |
Time is leverage: why shelf life matters
There is a second way the farmer loses. Fresh fruit has a clock. A grower with durians that must be sold in days has no power in a negotiation, and the buyer knows it.
Fruit that keeps longer can wait for a better buyer or a better day. In my preliminary tests at Bloopy Durians, on local durians, Janny MT modules extended shelf life by about 5 to 10 days. These are early results from my own tests, not a published study, and more testing and R&D could take them further. Bloopy Durians is the Janny MT representative. Those extra days do not remove the middleman, but they give you room to say no. They matter most on long routes such as export to China.
You can read more in our guides to Janny MT controlled atmosphere storage modules, the complete guide to Janny MT post-harvest modules and Janny MT for exporters and distributors.
Farmers, packhouses and distributors who want to test a crop can WhatsApp Stephen 017-9250613 · www.bloopydurians.com
Questions to ask before you sign with one big buyer
This is not legal advice. Take any contract to a lawyer, and your insurance questions to your insurer. Here is what to ask:
Is the price fixed, or does the buyer set it when the fruit arrives?
Who decides what is rejected, and who bears the cost of rejected fruit?
How many days until I am paid?
Can I still sell to other buyers, or does the deal make me exclusive?
What happens if the buyer cuts volume halfway through the season?
If I open the gate to visitors, does my liability insurance cover guests, and what does my local authority require?
Reality Check: Visitors will not replace a big buyer overnight. A tour takes time to fill. The aim is to move part of your crop out of the middleman's price, so one buyer can never set all of your income. |
Frequently asked questions
Will Davao durian farmers share in the US$27 million?
Nobody can say yet. The reports give no volume, no price per kilo and no farm-gate price. Watch for the price paid at the farm and the purchase schedule.
What is a farm-gate price?
It is the price farmers receive at the farm. Philippine statisticians note that transport and other marketing costs are not included.
Does this apply to US, Canadian and UK farms?
Yes, in structure. USDA data show US farms get 11.8 cents of each food dollar, and UK reporting describes farmers with little share of profit. The crop changes. The pattern does not.
Can a small farm really sell direct to visitors?
Many already do: 116,617 US farms sold directly to consumers in 2022. But it takes work and local rules, so start small and test. Our Agritourism 101 guide is a good first read.
Can longer shelf life get me a better price?
It does not guarantee one. It gives you time to compare buyers instead of selling the same day. My preliminary durian tests showed about 5 to 10 extra days.
Is one buyer setting your price?
Which of your crops is stuck in a middleman's price? Take the Farm Readiness Quiz to see where your farm could earn more from visitors.
Then get the free guide, 150 Ways to Unlock Hidden Wealth From Your Farm. It shows ways to earn more from the land, buildings and equipment you already own, so you are not relying only on an unpredictable harvest.
P.S. Remember the truck from Calinan: ₱25 at the start of the road, up to ₱100 at the end. The only question that matters is which end of the road your farm is on.
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. This article is general information, not legal, financial or insurance advice.
Sources
NewsLine Philippines, "Davao durian firms seal $27M China deals but farmers must share gains," 11 November 2026: newsline.ph
MindaNews, "From Davao to Tandag," photo of the day, 13 July 2026: mindanews.com
MindaNews, "Durian exports to China down to only 5M kilos this year," 18 December 2025: mindanews.com
MindaNews, "Kadayawan will have fewer durians, other fruits," August 2025: mindanews.com
SunStar Davao, "China, Davao eye deeper economic ties": sunstar.com.ph
South China Morning Post, 23 July 2026, republished by UDLAP Observatorio Global: observatorioglobal.udlap.mx
Edge Davao, "Davao durian enters Oman market with trial shipment," July 2026 (exchange rate): edgedavao.net
USDA Economic Research Service, Food Dollar charts, 2024 data: ers.usda.gov and ers.usda.gov
Farmers Weekly, "Food prices: Why farmers get the smallest share and how to change it": fwi.co.uk
USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture release, 13 February 2024: nass.usda.gov
Penn State NERCRD, agritourism and direct-to-consumer data briefs from the 2022 Census: nercrd.psu.edu
AgEcon Search, USDA agritourism resources report (2022 Census averages): ageconsearch.umn.edu
Philippine Statistics Authority, Davao Region farm-gate price definition: rsso11.psa.gov.ph
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