Guangxi: Thai pomelos have become a new favorite and best-selling item during Chinese New Year in China. Supermarkets and fruit markets in China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province were bustling with people during the 2026 Spring Festival, as they stocked up on a variety of fruits, including apples, oranges, and even durian, longan, and custard apples from Southeast Asia. Thai fruits dominated the selection, with several varieties of pomelo, such as the 'Thap Thim Siam', 'Khao Morakot', and 'Thong Dee', gaining increasing popularity in recent years.
According to Thai News Agency, the Youyiguan border crossing in Pingxiang City, Guangxi, was bustling with trucks transporting imported and exported fruits, matching the simultaneous online and offline fruit orders. Liu Xian, the owner of a stall in the Pingxiang fruit logistics park, revealed that Thai pomelos and durians from Southeast Asia were the most popular during the Chinese New Year. Pomelos have auspicious meanings in China, making them suitable gifts for relatives and friends, while the high quality of Thai pomelos encourages repeat purchases.
Liu Chunfu, who runs a group fruit sourcing business both online and offline in Nanning, Guangxi, said that community-level consumption has become a driving force behind sales of Southeast Asian fruits. For this year's Chinese New Year, he launched a gift set of "Rainbow Thai Pomelos" with green rinds and translucent red flesh, matching the auspicious color "red" associated with the Lunar New Year. Sales have been consistently strong since its launch in early February, before the Lunar New Year.
Insiders in the fruit industry believe the high price of Thai pomelos is linked to limited cultivation areas. Some varieties are grown exclusively in central and southern Thailand, resulting in limited annual production and a relatively short supply. Furthermore, once entering the Chinese market, they are mostly sold individually, targeting middle to high-income consumers. Currently, the Chinese pomelo market is dominated by domestically produced varieties such as red-fleshed pomelo, Shatian pomelo, and grapefruit.