「果物の王様」ドリアン農家、熱波で窮地に タイ

【チャンタブリ（タイ）ＡＦＰ＝時事】ドリアン農園の労働者は目に入る汗をものともせず木によじ登り、扱いづらい形の果実を木から手際よく切り離すと、１５メートル下で待つ仲間に向かって放り投げた。（写真は、タイ東部チャンタブリ県の農園でドリアンの果実を受け取る労働者）
　トゲトゲした緑褐色の殻と独特な匂いが特徴の「果物の王様」は、タイで最も有名でもうかる輸出品の一つで、何百年も前から育てられてきた。
　しかし、東南アジアを襲う猛烈な熱波でドリアンの収穫量は減り、生産コストは高騰している。ドリアン産業は地球温暖化の影響を受け、生産者と販売者は追い詰められつつある。
　「今年は危機的状況だ」と、ドリアン農家のブサバ・ナクピパットさん（５４）はＡＦＰに語った。
　ブサバさんは３０年前、タイのドリアン生産の中心地、東部チャンタブリ県にある両親の農園を継いだ。
　「この先も暑い日が続けば、もう終わりだ」と言う。
　ドリアンのシーズンは通常３月から６月までだが、気温の急上昇とそれに続く干ばつにより、収穫時期が短くなっている。チャンタブリ県では４０度前後の日が何週間も続いている。
　ドリアンは重さと大きさで等級分けされるが、ブサバさんによると、暑さのせいで早くに熟してしまい、最も価値のある大きさまで成長しないという。
　収入が減っただけでなく、生産コストも上がっている。
　３月以降、干ばつで井戸の水がなくなってしまったため、ブサバさんはドリアンを枯らさないよう大量の水をトラックで運ぶことを余儀なくされている。
　「１０ライ（１．６ヘクタール）の農園全体に水を１回まくには１２万リットル、給水車１０台分の水を買う必要がある」。水を運ぶ作業は１日おきに行い、その費用は数千ドルに上る。
　「ドリアンの将来は、水がなくなったら終わりだ」とブサバさんは語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/05/17-20:05）

Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian labourer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague's waiting arms some 15 metres (50 feet) below.
Among Thailand's most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent king of fruits is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years.
But a vicious heatwave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiralling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry.
This year is a crisis, durian farmer Busaba Nakpipat told AFP bluntly.
The weather-beaten 54-year-old took over her parents' farm in eastern Chanthaburi province -- Thailand's durian heartland -- three decades ago.
If the hot weather continues to rise in the future, it'll be over, she said. Farmers wouldn't be able to produce durian anymore.
Durian season usually lasts from March until June, but the soaring temperatures -- which in her province have hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for weeks -- and subsequent drought have shortened the harvest.
Busaba said the heat causes the durian, which is graduated by weight and size, to ripen faster so it does not grow to its fullest -- and most valuable -- size.
The quality of the durian won't meet the standard, she said.
And not only is she getting less money for the crop, Busaba's operational costs have risen.
Since March a drought has sucked water from the wells, so to keep her precious durian trees alive Busaba is forced to bring in thousands of litres by truck.
We have to buy 10 water trucks for 120,000 litres of water for one-time watering the whole 10-rai (1.6 hectares) of our farm, she said, repeating the process every other day, at a cost of thousands of dollars.
We have prayed for rain, she said. But there was no rain.
- This year, less -
Thailand's durian exports are worth billions and are the kingdom's third most valuable agricultural product -- behind rice and rubber.
But in the nearby durian market, anxiety is running high among stall-holders, many of them with family businesses going back generations.
Siriwan Roopkaew, manning her mother's stall, said the lack of water has impacted the size of the fruit, but for now prices remain high thanks to demand from China.
Around 95 percent of Thaliand's durian exports are to China, which shipped nearly $4.6 billion worth of the love-it-or-hate-it fruit from the kingdom in 2023, according to data from Beijing's commerce ministry.
But the weather is threatening Thailand's dominance.
In May Chinese state media reported an almost 50 percent rise in durian imported from Vietnam, citing heat and drought in Thailand.
Hot weather means there will be less durian. Even this year, there is less durian, Siriwan, 26, said.
Normally, my stall would be full of durian by now.
While farmers worried about water, she said, sellers like her family were more concerned about the knock-on economics.
Less durian means our earnings are less, she said, so it'd be hard for us to live the whole year.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, Busaba sighed as she considered the months ahead.
The future of durian, it's over if there's no water, she said.