BANGKOK: The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry is expected to receive the approval for fresh whole fruit ‘Musang King’ durian export to China next year.
The ministry’s deputy secretary-general Datuk Mohd Salehhuddin Hassan said negotiations with the Chinese government on Musang King export to the country was positive.
“Negotiations with the Chinese government proceeded positively. We have met their enquiries in terms of fruit safety and security. We hope to obtain approval next year but it depends on the negotiation,” he told Bernama recently.
He was attending a Durian Fiesta at the Malaysian embassy here in conjunction with acquiring export approval for fresh Malaysian Musang King into the Thai market.
According to Salehhuddin, currently, Musang King cannot be exported to China as a whole fruit but only in pulp, frozen and chilled form.
The demand for Musang King has been extremely high in China which caused the price of the king of fruits to skyrocket to more than RM300 per kilogramme in Malaysia.
“After several major promotions in China, the residents there now know the real taste of Musang King and they are actually waiting for the fruit to enter the market in their country,” he said.
Durian fans in China according to him, are willing to spend to enjoy delicious Musang King from Malaysia.
The high demand in China has also resulted in some fruit traders there to labelling Thai durians as Musang King to exploit the high prices of Malaysian durians, he said.
Salehuddin said the Chinese market was also important to ensure the increasing number of durian producers in Malaysia have a market for their fruits.
Based on a survey by the Agriculture Department three months ago, Malaysia has about 500,000 mature Musang King durian trees with a large portion of them in Raub and Bentong.
At the moment, private entrepreneurs are investing in hundreds of acres of Musang King durian trees.
With the increasing number of planters of Musang King, he said the ministry needed seek access to the largest durian market in the world in China quickly.—BERNAMA
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