The Wet Weather Has Led to Higher Durian Prices & Lower-Quality Durians

Look out of the window and chances are, you’re looking at the rain no matter when you’re reading this article.

By now, everyone would’ve known that it’s going to be rainy all the way until the new year—and we’re not talking about the usual new year but Chinese New Year.

Yeah, it’s going be wet until February 2020.

Other than minor inconveniences and cheers from private-hire drivers, there’s also one thorny problem that you’d not have expected: durian prices have increased.

The Wet Weather Has Led to Higher Durian Prices

If you’re a durian lover who cannot live a day without the king of durians, you’d have seen the price increase.

Since the onslaught of the wet weather, the supply of durian from Malaysia has dropped by about 20% to 30%.

And if you’ve paid attention during your economics lessons, you’d know what that entails: price increase.

According to CNA, the prices of Mao Shan Wang was originally between $18 to $22 per kg; however, that has since been increased to about $25 per kg.

Durian vendors interviewed by CNA also claimed that the quality of the durians have dropped; apparently, due to the wet weather, the durians aren’t that sweet and yellow anymore.

Holy shit, like that might as well eat vanilla ice-cream lah.

Two Reasons for the Lack of Supply

The first reason is clear-cut: because it’s also been raining cats and dogs in Malaysia, durians aren’t getting ripe as fast, so they remained high up on the tree instead of dropping on someone’s head.

And the second reason’s something that you might not have expected: floods in Malaysia have led to transportation problems.

All our durians come from Malaysia, and you’d see bigly lorries coming into Singapore every morning with fresh durians. But with the floods blocking the way, it has led to delays and possibly non-delivery down to Singapore.

So, if you’re craving for durians this wet season, then good luck: either prepare to fork out more for that MSW or simply go have some ice-cream lah.

After all, remember: it’s not only supply that has dropped. Quality has dropped, too.

And, by the way, if you want to know why durians have such a strong smell, you can watch this video (and also subscribe to our YouTube channel if you’ve not done so):