The Adjustment of Durian Exporter Strategies of Thai Entrepreneurs to China for Supporting the Economic Recover from COVID-19

Abstract

Durian was the fruit that brought the main income to Thailand and exported mainly to China. The spread of the Corona Virus had affected the operation of Thai entrepreneurs who exported durians to the main target country. When the situation had been changed, the business needed adjustment. This research article had objectives to study: 1) The adjustment of Thai durian export entrepreneurs for supporting the economic recover from COVID-19; 2)The process of operating durian export of Thai entrepreneurs; 3)The corporate strategy which the Thai durian export entrepreneurs used; 4)The competitive strategy which the Thai durian export entrepreneurs used; 5) The functional strategy which the Thai durian export entrepreneurs used. For this study, the researchers used the qualitative research by applying Delphi method with 17 Thai durian export experts, especially exported to China; and using median, mode, percentage, and interquartile range. Moreover, there were in-depth interviewing with 2 qualified government officers using content analysis to confirm the results. The research found that: 1) The adjustment of Thai durian export entrepreneurs for supporting the economic recover from COVID-19 were: adjusted the quality of durian due to the requirements of customers, adjusted their management to meet standards at the right time, adjusted their managerial abilities to cope up with COVID’s problems, improved their reputations and credit, adjusted human resources and strengthened the networks, improved services, and relationship with foreign importers.2)The process of business operation was done as follows: purchased and selected durian, controlled the use of agrochemical drug and drying time, packing, uploaded durians into the container, inform the government officer to check, adjusted the temperature and waited for the decrease of temperature, released the container and transported. Most of the Thai exporters used indirect export. All durian exporters were required to have inspection measures’documents. 3) For corporate strategy, most of them used growth strategy both vertical and horizontal. 4) For competitive strategy, they used a differentiation focus. Focus on quite high quality and sold quite high price. Durians from Malaysia were the main competitors. 5) For functional strategy, they adjusted many functions such as production, marketing, human resource, financial, and logistics for supporting the economic recover from covid-19.