They Bet on China's Durian Appetite. Then Came a Twist

Malaysian durian growers spent years banking on China's love for the spiky, pungent fruit. Now that bet is backfiring. The New York Times reports that while China's appetite for durian hasn't faded, its preferences have: buyers increasingly want fresh fruit, not the frozen versions that Malaysia scaled up to supply. With limited air cargo capacity and rivals like Thailand and Vietnam crowding the market, prices for Malaysian durian have plunged to their lowest level in a decade: roughly $1 a pound, a tenth what prices had been.

Reporter Zunaira Saieed flags one "inherent" problem in durian farming: newly planted trees don't bear fruit for five to 10 years, meaning farmers are forced to anticipate demand as much as a decade in advance. Exports of frozen durian pulp and paste began strengthening in 2017, and two years later, the export of frozen whole durian got the OK. Optimistic farmers responded by growing the country's durian acreage by nearly 40% between 2016 and 2024.

"That expansion is now feeding into today's glut," Saieed notes. The government has started buying surplus fruit in an attempt to ease the financial blow, while exporters are scrambling to identify new but smaller markets. Read the full story for more—including China's push to grow the fruit itself.