The state of Johor has announced a centre to collect excessive durians from the suppliers in Tangkak, Muar, and Segamat to overcome the fruits’ fluctuating price and supply glut issue.
Announced by Johor Agriculture, Agro-Based Industry, and Rural Development Committee chairman Datuk Zahari Sarip, the joint cooperation with the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) centre was erected last year and is expected to be fully operational by next peak season for durians.
“At that time, I foresaw that the durian dumping season would be over, because (that were collected at the centre), I understood that this collection centre will take all the durians from Segamat, Tangkak, and Muar to be collected, frozen, and marketed throughout the year,” he said in a local fruit appreciation event with media.
Zahari added that the state is also working with a Selangor-based company that uses Chinese nitrogen-freezing technology to preserve the fruit.
“In addition, the technology also processes the durian into paste or jam for other products,” he said.
He said FAMA will engage durian entrepreneurs from Tangkak, Muar, and Segamat to explain how the centre can handle large quantities of durian and benefit traders.
Maintaining that the objective is to maintain a stable pricing structure during the durian season and off-season, he also added that the management and marketing aspects for the collected durians at the centre would be taken care of by FAMA.
This is seen as a way to overcome the issue of oversupply.
“The centre will freeze the collected durian, and they can be marketed all year round,” he added.
Zahari stated that the centre would help stabilise durian prices throughout the year, subject to agreements with farmers and traders.
He listed the variants that are popularised in Johor, such as Musang King, D13 (durian kunyit), IOI, Tekka, Black Thorn, Kim Hong, and kampung durians, citing that their department is keeping up with some new, emerging variants like Taiwanese and XO.
Zahari told reporters that Johor has produced 189,787 metric tonnes of durian from 19,179 hectares involving 34,000 operators in 2024.
Johor contributed 13 million kilogrammes out of the whole 6.863 million kilogrammes of durian exported nationwide.
The main export destinations included Singapore, China, and Hong Kong. Malaysia exported 7.2 million kilogrammes of durians to Singapore through Johor’s border.
