GEORGE TOWN: The king of fruits is back in season here in Penang.
For durian orchard owners in Balik Pulau, however, they fear this will be another year of poor business, owing to the two-week total lockdown currently in place.
The situation is further compounded with interdistrict and interstate travel bans.
At this time of the year, durian lovers will usually take a long drive to the numerous roadside stalls or farms in Balik Pulau in search of the best thorny, pungent fruits.
Last year, at the start of the durian season, Malaysia was also placed under the Movement Control Order (MCO).
Shamsol Abdul Aziz, 34, who owns a 1.6 hectare durian orchard in Sungai Pinang, Balik Pulau, expects his yield to increase to about 17 tonnes this year compared with just 11 tonnes last year, mainly due to the weather factor.
He has 18 species of durian in his orchard alone from the total 26 species available in Balik Pulau
Despite the abundance of fruits, Shamsol said he expected his business to drop by between 60 and 70 per cent this time due to marketing issues.
He said he suffered between RM60,000 and RM70,000 losses last year due to the lockdown, and the fact that they were not allowed to set up roadside stalls.
To minimise further losses, he sold the durian flesh, including the famed Black Thorn and Musang King species, to factories producing ice cream or even tempoyak at a cheap price.
"So we thought we should try to push for better production this year to cover our losses. We invested about RM120,000 to look after all our durian trees well so there would be abundant yield, and we succeeded.
"However, we did not expect another round of total lockdown. Now, we are back to square one. We expect losses to be even greater this year with more fruits available. I am looking at between RM70,000 and RM80,000 losses," he said when met at his temporary roadside stall in Tanjung Tokong here.
Shamsol hoped the state government would allow them to set up roadside stalls to trade this time, solely for take-away.
"We are trying our best to push our durian sales online but that is just not enough. We also sell frozen fruits to our regular customers outside of Penang but even then, sales are limited.
"Somehow, our people still prefer to see the fresh, physical fruits before buying them. This gives them greater satisfaction.
"As such, we really hope the state government will allow us to set up roadside stalls," added Shamsol, who has been in the business for more than 10 years now.
Besides his roadside stall here, Shamsol also runs another temporary roadside stall in Kepala Batas on the mainland.
In the past, Shamsol would open his orchard to customers for them to savour the wide range of durian available there at a package price and would have about six roadside stalls.
Meanwhile, Shamsol said durian prices also dropped between RM5 and RM10 per kg during this lockdown period, depending on the species.
He cited the D604 durian which used to sell for RM38 per kg, is now being sold at RM28 per kg.
"The D604 is in full bloom now and we have no choice but to push our fruits out or they will go rotten.
"So, this is actually a good time for the people to enjoy their favourite fruits," he said, noting that the durian season would last up to August, with the peak season at the end of this month.
Penang has about 200 durian farms on the island.