60 tonnes of contaminated durians buried, 26 exporters banned

Over 64 tonnes of Thai durians were buried after being rejected by China for contamination with yellow dye. The Agriculture Department has suspended 26 exporters and imposed stricter testing to prevent further incidents.

A total of 64,671 kilogrammes of durians rejected by China for being contaminated with yellow dye have been disposed of by burial, the Agriculture Department reported on Thursday.

Rapeepat Chansriwong, Director-General of the Agriculture Department, stated that his department had tested samples of the rejected durians, confirming contamination with Basic Yellow 2 (BY2)—the substance cited by China as the reason for rejecting the shipments.

Basic Yellow 2 (BY2) is a dye that has recently drawn attention for its use in artificially enhancing the colour of durian fruit, particularly for export. It is suspected that some exporters dipped the durians in the dye to make them appear more appealingly yellow.

Rapeepat said the contaminated durians had been buried by department officials at the plant quarantine office at Laem Chabang deep seaport and at the Aranyaprathet border checkpoint.

Following China's detection of BY2 contamination, it has introduced a new regulation requiring all durians exported from Thailand to undergo laboratory testing for the dye.

Rapeepat also announced that the department has suspended the export licences of 26 durian wholesalers responsible for shipping the contaminated durians to China.

The exact cause of the contamination is still under investigation. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department, under the Ministry of Agriculture, will revise the export manual for durians to prevent further incidents, he added.

(2025/02/06-00:00)