HONG KONG: China has a soaring appetite for durians and they are following the scent to Hong Kong, where they can savour a premium variety of the fruit, fresh from Malaysia.
The Musang King could soon join the ranks of milk powder and toiletries that mainland Chinese tourists flock to Hong Kong to buy, as the mainland does not allow fresh durians to be imported from Malaysia.
A growing number of durian shops has opened over the past year in Hong Kong, and tourists are the main driving force behind the trend, the shop owners say.
“Mainland tourists now account for 30 per cent of our sales and 50 per cent during festivals and promotion seasons,” said Nicholas Ng, general manager of Mali Home, which owns more than 30,000 durian trees in Malaysia and started selling the pungent fruit in Hong Kong a decade ago.
Customers from mainland China bought half of more than HK$100,000 worth of durians sold at Mali Home’s shop in the department store Sogo in Causeway Bay during a 10-day sale in November, Ng said.
The Chinese have grown increasingly fond of the unique taste of the smelly, alien fruit in recent years, with total imports surging 146 per cent to US$635 million in 2016 from five years ago, according to United Nations’ data.
A host of durian-related products have emerged across China. On Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform run by Alibaba, more than 217,000 durian items are being sold, including durian meat, durian cake, durian pastry and dried durian. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
But the Chinese appetite remains unsated, and the most famous variety, Musang King – which boasts an especially strong mixed flavour of bitterness and sweetness – among other Malaysian varieties, remains available only in the form of frozen pulp. China has only opened its doors to fresh imports from Thailand.
This has prompted durian lovers, such as 50-year-old Shenzhen resident Rao Minghui, to travel 1½ hours to Hong Kong and spend HK$680 on an all-you-can-eat fresh Malaysian durian buffet.
“Durians in Hong Kong are fresher and more authentic than those in Shenzhen,” Rao said. “Durians are really smooth, tasty, and very nourishing as well.” (CONTINUED)
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