Malaysian durians entered the market in early June. The peak period of the durian sales season is expected to last until the end of August. Overseas market demand for Malaysian durian is growing stronger every day. And the production volume of Malaysian durian rapidly increased in recent years. Newleaf Plantation Berhad is a Malaysian company specialized in the plantation and sales of durian. The company owns a plantation in Pahang that covers 404 hectares. Manager He, a spokesperson for Newleaf Plantation Berhad, recently talked about the current conditions in the durian market.
This year the company expects to export around 100 shipping containers full of durian. That is an increase of 10%-20% in comparison with last year. The main markets of Newleaf Plantation Berhad, apart from Malaysia itself, are Hong Kong and China. As overseas market demand is growing, the price is steadily rising too. The current export price of fresh Malaysian durian is around 990 Malaysian Ringgit [231 USD] per 10 kg.
"We mainly export frozen durian pieces to the Chinese market. But we also signed a cooperation agreement with our Chinese partners last year. We opened stores on multiple e-commerce platforms such as JD and TMall, where we sell whole Musang King durian," explained manager He.
"In the end, the Covid-19 pandemic only had a limited impact on our sales. Only 1% of the Chinese consumers has ever tried durian. Although the Chinese market is only slowly recovering, the durian is a high-end product, and that market is different. The price of durian is high, but the purchasing power of high-end consumers was not affected as much by the outbreak of Covid-19 in comparison with the rest of the Chinese fruit market," said manager He. "This is also the first year that we offer a shipping included service for our clients in Hong Kong. Customers in Hong Kong can order online and we immediately begin processing their order by harvesting fresh durian from our plantation, which we process, package, and then deliver to our clients within 24 hours."
"Malaysia has more than 200 durian varieties. The Musang King durian is the most popular Malaysian durian variety in the Chinese and Hong Kong markets, because this durian variety has great publicity and has been on the market for a long time. The D197 Musang King durian is the highest-rated Malaysian durian variety. This variety is known as the king of durian. The smell is strong and fragrant. The flavor is rich like butter and the fruit flesh is the color of ginger. The texture of this durian is very fine," said manager He. In addition to the Musang King durian, Newleaf Plantation Berhad also exports D101, D13 Jinbao, and D24 Sultan King durian.
"Newleaf Plantation Berhad researched and developed an automated selection system to further improve the product quality of the durian. Each tree in the durian plantation is marked with an identifier that the system can scan. The system then displays detailed information with regard to the durian variety, the amount of fertilizer and water the tree received, its record of plant disease, and the time of harvest. Employees immediately know whether a tree requires additional fertilizer or water, etc. This system has greatly improved efficiency in our plantation and helped us save on labor cost."
For more information:
He - Manager
Newleaf Plantation Berhad
Tel.: +603-62016336
E-mail: [email protected]
Webshop: https://newleaf.com.my/language/zh/