A RARE second durian season is lowering the prices for lovers of the thorny fruit and plantation owners hoping for a windfall are seeing prices drop as hard as the fruit from the trees in Penang.

From over RM100 per kg several months ago, the price of the famed Musang King variety should cost merely RM55 to RM65 per kg now, said Wong Jee Min, Penang Fruit Orchards Association chairman.

The same goes for the prices of “Ang Heh”, “Orchi” and “Hor Lor” durians which are grown in abundance in the state’s orchards, said Wong.

The state’s fruit orchard owners and durian sellers have been blessed this year with another round of harvest, but while that is music to the ears of durian fans, Wong said orchard owners were bracing for weaker sales following the state’s worst-ever floods earlier this month.

The storm on November 4 and 5 brought strong winds and record heavy rain in half a day, which caused flash floods, landslides and felled trees all over the state. More than 12,500 people were evacuated.

Wong said orchards in Penang lost at least 500 durian trees to the storm, but the worst effect of the storm was the lower demand.

“Penang durians are not for export. They depend on domestic consumption,” said Wong.

“Right now, many Penangites are taking out money to repair their cars and see to the damages at their homes. 

“Who has money for durian?” he said.

He also said ripe durians were best sold and eaten within the first 12 hours after they had dropped to the ground, and those unsold while they were fresh would fetch less.

“Durian is gold in its first 12 hours. If I cannot sell within that time, I will have to lower the prices because the flesh will be watery by then,” he said.

Fake “China rejection” news

While they brace for poor business, Wong said the fake news of China rejecting Musang King durians from Malaysia was making matters worse.

He was referring to the viral message that read: “China rejected close to 20 containers of Musang King durians due to too high insecticide detected in the fruit and the durians have been returned back to Malaysia and were sold at a cheap price in Raub and Bentong for RM30 per kg.”

Durian farmers and sellers had refuted the claim, while Malaysian Durian Festival 2017 organiser Dominic Su and coordinator Robin Wong issued a statement on Sunday saying that China had yet to even allow Malaysia to import whole durians into the country.

“Someone is purposely trying to give Malaysian durians a bad rep,” said Wong, adding that his association was even thinking of filing a complaint with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) over the fake viral message.

Yeoh Hooi Chooi, 69, who sells durians in Taman Chai Leng, Prai, agreed that the Malaysian durian was being defamed.

“The viral message suggests that the rejected durians were brought back from China to sell cheap in Malaysia. With the shipping cost, how can that be true?”

Yeoh, who has a fruit orchard in Pengkalan Hulu, Perak, said he sells Musang King durians for RM58 per kilo and has suffered from weak demand in the past few months.

“Business is already tough, down 20% to 30%. Business has been declining since 2015 as prices started to increase due to the low supply of durians,” said Yeoh.

“Maybe the Chinese tourists do drive the prices up, but it is a fact that local customers are spending less on durians.” – November 21, 2017.