GUA MUSANG: The ongoing El Nino phenomenon has an impact on the production of durian here and growers expect an increase in prices due to a lower yield of fruit this season.
The hot weather and erratic rainfall causes most of the durian flowers to dry up and the fruit to quickly fall before reaching maturity.
Durian orchard operator Tina Chong, 45, said that for this season, the fruit production from her 1,000 durian trees experienced a decline of 70% from last year.
"The production of durian fruit is not very encouraging this year, trees that usually bear up to 300 to 400 fruits for one season are also seen to be almost unable to produce fruit at all.
"All growers are affected by the hot weather this year so I think the price of durian will increase due to less fruits in the market," she told Bernama recently.
Chong, who cultivates various types of durian such as musang king and kampung durian in a 9ha orchard, said musang king durian were priced between RM35 and RM80 per kilogramme last year depending on the grade. - Bernama
