JOHOR BARU: Fruit traders in Johor are anticipating a boom in business within the next few weeks as Singaporeans are expected to come over to have a taste of the king of fruits – Malaysian durians.

       Tie Kian Chow, 41, who owns a stall selling durians and other fruits in Skudai here, said he had been selling at least 3,000kg of durians a day since the end of May.

       “The durian season has just started and for some places, the durians will only start to fall in the next one or two weeks.

       “We can see that there is a very high demand for the fruit this year, especially among customers from Singapore as they have not been able to enjoy the durians here over the past two years,” he told The Star.

       He added that among the variety of durians he had at his stall include the Red Prawn, D13, D101, D24 and Musang King.

       “The price of the durians this year are the same as last year’s. We are selling Musang King for about RM48 per kg. For those who buy 10kg, we give a discount of RM50, bringing the total to only RM430.

       “The Musang King can be sold as high as RM80 to RM100 when there is a shortage of supply. It is not likely that the durians will be sold at lower prices.

       “This is because high quality durians that are not sold off can be frozen and later sold to countries like China where there is a very high demand for durians,” he said.

       As for other variety of durians such as the D13, D101 and Red Prawn, Tie said that these durians were sold between RM10 and RM30 per kg, depending on its quality and grade.

       Another trader, Howard Chua, 36, said that business had increased by 30% this durian season compared with last year.

       “These are just the first few days of the durian season, I believe that sales could double by the middle of the month as the durian season reaches its peak.

       “The return of Singaporean customers has really helped to boost sales. We are also getting customers from Indonesia and China. Our regular customers from Sabah are also about to come over to enjoy our durians here,” he said.

       Meanwhile, Han Sing Keng, 45, who owns a 8.09ha farm in Kulai, said that he had already been receiving calls from regular customers from Singapore over the past few days.

       “Although the durians at my farm are only expected to fall in about a week, I am already receiving lots of calls from those who used to visit my farm regularly before the closure of the border.

       “Most of my customers were Singaporeans. So when the border was closed, my business was badly hit.

       “Thankfully, I was able to deliver some durians across the border to some of my regular customers. This sustained my business during the pandemic,” he said.

       He said the volume of durians available this season was expected to be lower compared with last year.

       “We have yet to set the price but we expect it to be slightly higher as we have less supply,” he said, adding that the durians were sold for about RM30 per kg last year.