Key messages Industry uses an Australian native plant. Plantations and marketing facilitated rapid expansion. Productivity will increase in the future. No accurate estimates of the present Australian production or sales are available because of the meagre size of the industry. The main consumer demand comes from the ethnic Asian population, especially from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.
Most consumers prefer fresh fruit, but frozen products are also acceptable.
Recently, Japan started importing durian from Malaysia and Thailand in the form of excised arils in sealed polythene punnets. This form of packaging alleviates the strong odour, keeps produce fresh, and poses no problems with airline transportation. There may be slight variation of the fruiting period from year to year depending on the weather, giving rise to off-season fruiting. Malaysia and Indonesia have two fruiting seasons because durian is grown in various localities. The main season in Sarawak and Sabah, East Malaysia straddles June through August and both have a small season in November December.