Malaysians enjoy cheaper durian as a bumper harvest and oversupply cause prices of premium varieties to drop by up to 90%.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians flocked to fruit stalls Wednesday for a slice of durian after a bumper harvest and oversupply of rejected export crops caused a sudden price drop in the notoriously pungent but expensive delicacy.
Aficionados packed food halls and roadside tents around Kuala Lumpur to make the most of the so-called “durian tsunami” that has seen prices of some premium quality fruit drop by as much as 90%.
Found across Southeast Asia, the spiky fruit comes in many varieties and in Malaysia, the highly prized cultivar Musang King is consumed locally and exported, mainly to China.
Malaysia, which produces more than 550,000 tonnes of durian a year, is currently in its peak harvest season.
Reports said on Wednesday the price of Musang King durian plummeted from around 90 ringgit ($22) per kilogram to as little as nine ringgit.
Other varieties, such as Black Thorn, have also dropped in price, according to local media reports.
“We learned from the industry that this year there would be a ‘Musang King tsunami’ — and this is indeed the case,” said Faisal Iswardi Ismail, a deputy director of Malaysia’s Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority.
“We hope prices can recover within the next few weeks,” he told journalists.
At an event organised by the agricultural authority, customers said they were making the most of the price crash.
“Malaysians are getting to enjoy cheaper durian… it makes us happy,” Sik Siao Peng told AFP.
At a roadside stall in Segambut, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from central Kuala Lumpur, an AFP correspondent saw people swarming to take advantage of the price boon.
Premium Black Thorn and Musang King were priced at under 25 ringgit per whole fruit. Cheaper varieties were sold in bulk at 100 ringgit for a basket of seven fruits.
Cheah Kim Wai, a manager at the DurianMan shop in Petaling Jaya, just outside the city centre, said “durians this year have become the cheapest they’ve been”.
Traders were worried about the slump as “the profit is not great”, Cheah told AFP. “But we have to sell, business must go on.”
“Durian really has become something ordinary people can afford to eat, priced like the old kampung (village) durians used to be,” Cheah added.
