KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Mainland Chinese tourists have been flocking to Hong Kong to buy durian because China does not import fresh durians from Malaysia, a report said.
South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported shop owners as saying that more durian shops have opened over the past year in Hong Kong and that tourists were the main factor behind the trend.
“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 that owns more than 30,000 durian trees in Malaysia and started selling durian in Hong Kong 10 years ago.
Ng was quoted saying that mainland Chinese customers bought half of more than HK$100,000 (RM52,351) worth of durians sold at Mali Home’s shop in a department store in Causeway Bay during a sale last month.
SCMP quoted United Nations data that said China’s total durian imports jumped 146 per cent to US$635 million (RM2.6 billion) in 2016 from five years ago.
More than 217,000 durian items are reportedly sold on Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform run by Alibaba, including dried durian, durian pastry, durian cake and durian meat.
The average price of fresh Malaysian durians in Hong Kong has risen 30 per cent to around HK$200 (RM104.70) per kilogramme from two years ago, due to increased demand from the mainland and highest costs caused by unfavourable climate, Ng was quoted saying.
China imports fresh durian only from Thailand.
SCMP reported that over the past five years, the value of durians imported into Hong Kong has jumped 170 per cent to HK$3.1 billion (RM1.62 billion) last year. Excluding more than 90 per cent of imports that were then re-exported to China, the city-state’s pure import reportedly increased 30 per cent to HK$188 million (RM98.4 million).
