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The payment, processed by China Construction Bank’s Xiamen branch in coordination with its Labuan branch in Malaysia, enabled a Chinese importer to pay directly in e-CNY for fresh Malaysian durians, the South China Morning Post reported.

It completed a bilateral digital yuan settlement loop following an inbound trial conducted in January.

The milestone could help speed up trade in perishable agricultural products such as durians, where lengthy cross-border payment processes can increase costs and reduce freshness.

Conventional cross-border settlements through the Swift banking network typically cost foreign trade firms $25 to $35 per transaction, incur clearing fees of more than 6%, and take one to three business days to complete, according to Xinhua Finance.

By comparison, the new e-CNY settlement mechanism reduces clearing time to about 30 minutes through direct bank-to-bank ledger transfers, eliminating intermediary clearing banks. Malaysian recipients can also convert digital yuan directly into ringgit without paying additional fees.

The payment comes as Malaysia seeks to expand exports to China, the world’s largest market for the “king of fruits”.

China imported a record $7 billion worth of durians in 2024, triple the value recorded in 2020. More than 90% of global durian exports are now shipped to the Chinese market.

Malaysia exported $30.26 million worth of fresh durians to China in the first six months of 2026, up 342% from a year earlier after the two countries signed a trade protocol in June 2024, the Bangkok Post reported.

“Even if only 2% of Chinese people want to buy durians, that’s more than enough business,” Chee Seng Wong, factory manager of Malaysian durian exporter Fresco Green in Raub, told the BBC.

Malaysia’s frozen durian exports to China also reached nearly $202 million in 2024. Kuala Lumpur aims to increase the annual value of its total durian exports to China to more than 900 million ringgit ($220 million) by 2030.