By The first export of fresh durian to China which is expected to start this September will not affect the market and the price of the fruit in the local market said the Director General of the Federal Agricultural Marketing Board (Fama) Abdul Rashid Bahri.
He said this was due to the durian being exported specifically for the market to China and the durian selected only involves durian clones of premium types such as Musang King, IOI or Duri Hitam and depending on the demand from the country concerned.
“We guarantee that the price of durian will not be expensive because for the local market, residents still have a variety of options including village durian. After all, this season is quite long, that is until this September we expect that there will still be a lot of fruit.
“So there will be affordable durian in the local market and there may be a slight price increase because there are costs that durian sellers have to bear,” he told reporters after officiating the Kendurian@Jualan Agro Madani Program here today.
The first shipment of fresh durians to China that will use the air or sea route also depends on the available supply and demand from the country concerned.
“If using a sea vessel, we estimate the delivery to be around 10 or 20 metric tons, while for air transport which is quite limited, we expect one metric ton or 5,000 seeds,” he said.
So far around 70 packing centers are being audited by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in addition to more than 200 durian farms that comply with Good Agricultural Practices standards applying for the auditing process to qualify their durian fruit for export.
