Town cashing-in on China’s billion-dollar appetite for luxury durian

Driving round Raub, a small city in Malaysia, it is unimaginable to overlook the prickly fruit that powers its economic system.

You possibly can odor it from the regular stream of vans winding by way of mountain roads, leaving a faint perfume on their trails.

You possibly can see it too: the inexperienced spikes of a large sculpture, murals painted fondly on low partitions and street indicators that proclaim: “Welcome to the house of Musang King durians.”

A gold mining city within the nineteenth Century, Raub has seen its economic system tackle a brand new hue of yellow in recent times. Right now it is higher generally known as the land of the Musang King — a buttery, bittersweet selection that the Chinese language have dubbed the “Hermès of durians”, as prized because the French vogue home.

Raub is certainly one of many South East Asian cities that sit on the coronary heart of a world durian rush, pumped by China’s rising demand. In 2024, China imported a file $7bn (£5.2bn) value of durians — a three-fold enhance from 2020. That is the place greater than 90% of the world’s durian exports at the moment are headed.

“Even when solely 2% of Chinese language folks wish to purchase durians, that is greater than sufficient enterprise,” says Chee Seng Wong, manufacturing unit supervisor of Fresco Inexperienced, a durian exporter in Raub.

Wong recollects how farmers lower down durian timber to make room for oil palms, the nation’s principal money crop, throughout an financial downturn within the Nineties.

“Now it is the opposite approach spherical. They’re chopping oil palms to develop durians once more.”

With an aroma that has been likened to cabbage, sulphur and sewers — relying on who the nostril belongs to — the durian packs a pungence so divisive that it is banned on some public transport and motels. It has been maligned for gas leaks, and was the reason a plane was grounded after passengers remonstrated towards the odor wafting from the cargo maintain.

Followers from the area have christened it the “King of fruits”, however on the web it has earned a much less flattering tag — the world’s smelliest fruit — as vacationers unused to its odour search it out with squeamish curiosity.

But it has discovered a rising fanbase in China: as an unique reward exchanged among the many prosperous; a standing image to be unboxed on social media; and the star of culinary heresies from durian rooster hotpot to durian pizza.

Thailand and Vietnam are the highest durian suppliers to China, accounting for almost all of its imports. Malaysia’s share of the market is sprouting quick, having earned a popularity with premium varieties such because the Musang King.

The typical worth of durian begins at lower than $2 (£1.4) in South East Asia, the place they’re grown in abundance. However luxe variations just like the Musang King may value wherever from $14 (£10) to $100 (£74) a pop, relying on their high quality and the season’s harvest.

“As soon as I ate Malaysian durian, my first thought was, ‘Wow, that is scrumptious. I’ve to discover a approach to deliver it to China’,” says Xu Xin, who has been sampling durians at a store in Raub. The 33-year-old sells the fruit again house in northeastern China, and is on the hunt for the very best durians to import.

Along with her are two durian exporters from southern China, certainly one of whom says enterprise has been booming. The opposite expects it to proceed: “There are such a lot of individuals who have not eaten it but. The market potential is large.”

It is easy to see why they’re so assured. Seated close by is a big Chinese language tour group — certainly one of many which have been flocking to rural Malaysia for a chew of the fruit.

Eagerly they dig into platters of durian, fastidiously organized from the mildest to the richest. If eaten in the appropriate order, locals say, contemporary notes ought to emerge with every glob on the flight: caramel, custard and eventually, an nearly alcoholic bitterness heralding the Musang King.

Such pedantry is maybe why Malaysian durians have earned a particular place on the Chinese language desk.

“Perhaps at first we solely favored durians that have been candy. However now we search for issues like perfume, richness and nuanced flavours,” Xu says. “These days there are extra clients who stroll into the store and ask, ‘Are there any bitter ones on this batch?'”

Simply hours earlier than the durians ended up on Xu’s plate, they have been painstakingly harvested at a close-by farm owned by Lu Yuee Factor.

Uncle Factor, as he is identified on the town, owns the durian store, together with a number of farms. He’s certainly one of many success tales in Raub, the place durians have made millionaires out of farmers. In household companies like his, sons typically assist with transporting durians whereas daughters deal with accounting and the funds.

“Durian has contributed so much to the economic system right here,” Uncle Factor says.

Driving to his farm one morning, there may be quiet delight in his voice as he factors out the Japanese pickup vans which have changed the rickety jeeps he used to depend on for transporting crates of his fruit.

Nonetheless, farming is tough work. At 72, Uncle Factor wakes up at daybreak every single day and weaves round his hilly farm to gather ripened durians, both dangling from timber or nestling on nets near the bottom. A few years in the past, a falling durian landed on his shoulder, leaving him with a throbbing ache that acts up from time to time.

“It seems like farmers make straightforward cash. However it’s not straightforward,” he says.

As soon as harvested, the durians are delivered to Uncle Factor’s store, the place they’re sorted into baskets starting from Grade A, for the big and spherical ones, to Grade C, the small and odd-shaped.

Sitting in the course of the sorting flooring is a lone basket reserved for Grade AA durians, the handsomest of the lot.

These will quickly be flown to China.

China’s insatiable urge for food for durians has formed as much as be a nifty diplomatic software.

Beijing has signed a flurry of durian commerce agreements, touting them as a celebration of bilateral ties — not simply with main producers like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, but in addition budding suppliers like Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Laos.

“On this durian competitors, everybody’s a winner,” declared a state media article in 2024.

The offers additionally dovetail with China’s investments in infrastructure within the area. The China-Laos Railway, launched in 2021, now transports greater than 2,000 tonnes of fruit every single day, most of them Thai durians.

However this clamour to maintain up with China’s urge for food comes at a price.

Meals security issues about Thai durians erupted final yr, after Chinese language authorities present in them a carcinogenic chemical dye believed to make the durians extra yellow.

In Vietnam, many espresso farmers pivoted to durians, driving up international espresso costs that have been already affected by extreme climate.

And in Raub, a turf struggle has damaged out. Authorities felled 1000’s of durian timber they stated have been planted illegally on state land. Farmers say they’ve been utilizing the land for many years with none subject, and allege they’re now being compelled to pay a lease to proceed farming there, or face eviction.

In the meantime, a coup could also be on the best way in China’s island province of Hainan, the place years of trial and error are bearing fruit. Its durian harvest for 2025 was anticipated to achieve 2,000 tonnes.

Like in so many industries, from renewables to AI, China has lengthy pushed to be self-sufficient in meals too.

Even because it reaps the fruits of this durian diplomacy, it’s eyeing what state media calls “durian freedom”.

“For one factor, we cannot need to depend on Thai and Vietnamese distributors when shopping for durians anymore!” proclaimed an article in August.

That’s nonetheless a distant dream. Hainan’s first home-grown durians hit the market with a lot fanfare in 2023, however accounted for lower than 1% of China’s durian consumption that yr.

However the best way Uncle Factor sees it, “Hainan has already succeeded in its experiment… If they’ve their very own provide and begin importing much less, our market might be affected.”

He shrugs it off for now: “That isn’t one thing we will fear about. All that we will do is take excellent care of our farms and enhance yields.”

Ask anybody else in Raub about Hainan’s quest, and your query might be swatted away with a smug comeback: they’re nonetheless no match for Malaysian durians.

And but, as China chases “durian freedom”, it is arduous to disregard the truth that the Musang King sits on an ever shakier throne.