China’s lust for the world’s smelliest fruit is making people rich

Before he started a company 15 years ago selling the world’s smelliest fruit, Eric Chan had a well-paying job writing code for satellites and robots. His family and friends were puzzled when he made the career change.

China is not only a buyer. Chinese investment has flowed into Thailand’s durian packing and logistics business. Already, Chinese interests control around 70 per cent of the durian wholesale and logistics business, according to Aat Pisanwanich, a Thai expert in international trade. Thailand’s own wholesale durian companies could “disappear in the near future,” he said at a news conference in May.

Countries are exporting a fruit that is an integral part of their identities and cultures, especially in Malaysia, where it is a unifying national icon among its many ethnic groups. “God gave us a desire for durian,” said Hishamuddin Rais, a Malaysian film director and political activist. The China surge is reshaping the durian supply chain. It’s relatively easy to deliver the fruit in the back of a truck to regional destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Bangkok. But shipping it to Guangzhou, Beijing and beyond, especially when the fruit is ripe and most flavourful, can be perilous. The fruit’s potent smell can resemble a gas leak.Malaysia has tried to solve the transport problem by freezing the fruit before shipping.

Thailand, by contrast, has been shipping fresh durian in refrigerated containers for many years. The Thai durian industry is centred in Chanthaburi province, near the border with Cambodia. During peak harvest season, in May and June, heaping piles of durian are everywhere.Around 1000 shipping containers of durian leave packinghouses throughout Chanthaburi every day, creating durian traffic jams that rival manic Bangkok intersections.

Source: Holiday News (holidaynews.net)

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